Never Forgotten
by X.x.Kuro-Neko-Chan.x.X
Summary: Haruno Sakura is new to Konoha high and she has a dark past that haunts her and forces her to give up on her talent.Unlike any other girl Sasuke has met,she despises guys with a passion.He becomes intrigued by the strange girl.Sasu&Sakufic.1stfic.R
1. Painful Memories

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto and characters in any way.

* * *

Forgotten

Chapter 1: Painful Memories

"Ohayo Shizune-chan! I'm here to get my schedule." said a bubble-gum pink hair girl. Everyone meet Haruno Sakura, a new student to Konoha High and she is 15 years old going to grade 11.

"Ohayo Sakura-chan. You have Hatake Kakashi-sensei as your homeroom. That would be in room 3-A. Hurry to your class and remember not to over exert yourself." the raven hair woman exclaimed.

"Hai! Don't worry Shizune-onee-chan. I'll be careful." Sakura said as she left the office in search of her class. 'I hope I can find my classroom soon or else I'm going to be late and sensei would be mad at me. I wish you were here with me Sai-nii-chan' she said to herself. As she rounded the corner of this monstrous school, she walked into something hard and landed on her backside.

"Itai."

As she looked up to see what she hit, her emerald eyes met with a single onyx one. "Ahhh! Gomen. I wasn't looking." she apologized as she bowed to the male.

"It's okay. I'm Hatake Kakashi. And who are you may I ask? You don't look like you are from around here".

"My name is Haruno Sakura and you are my homeroom teacher." the cherry blossom replied quietly.

"Ahh. I see, so you are my new student. Alright then, follow me." Kakashi said happily as he reached for her arm to prompt her into following him.

Sakura saw his hand coming and slapped it away while stepping backwards away from the man. She stared at his hand with wide eyes filled with painful memories. Kakashi was shocked for her reaction. He looked at her face and was appalled to find her eyes filled with fear, shock and sadness running through her innocent emerald eyes.

"Gomen Kakashi-sensei. But I don't like anyone touching me." Sakura whispered. She suddenly found her uniform interesting to look at. The girl's uniform consists of a white blouse, a navy blue blazer, a black school tie, a navy blue skirt that was an inch above the knee, black sneakers and a jacket that had the school embalm on the right breast in white. The boy's uniform was the same as the girl's but with pants instead of a skirt.

"Iie Sakura-chan. I'm sorry for making you feel uncomfortable." he said while smiling.

Sakura looks up at her sensei hesitantly and got a good look at his face. He had a mask covering most of his face with his right onyx eye revealed. He had a cloth with the school symbol covering his left eye. Her eyes travelled to his hair, abnormal silver, gravity defying hair and an orange book at hand. He wore a green vest, with a black sweater underneath and had black khakis on with blue sandals.

"Are you ready to head to class now Sakura-chan?"

"H-hai", Sakura replied quietly, snapping out of her reverie she followed Kakashi down the abandoned hallway to their designation.

xxxxxxx Meanwhile in room 3-A xxxxxxx

"Gahhh! Where is that perverted old man!! He's already 45 minutes late! Ahhh!' yelled an obnoxious, hyperactive young blonde.

"N-Naruto-kun, p-please calm d-down", whispered a dark haired heiress, trying to calm down her boyfriend.

"But Hinata-chan", whined Naruto, "He's late again!"

"Dobe, just shut up", said an irritated raven haired boy.

"Damare, Sasuke-teme!" shouted Naruto.

Just than the door slid open, and in walked Kakashi with his nose stuck in the infamous book Icha Icha Paradise.

"Sorry I'm late class. I was helping a new student get to her class."

"Liar!" chimed the whole class except for Sasuke and Hyuuga Neji.

"But I'm telling the truth you guys." The silver-haired man said. "You can come in now."

The door slowly slid open, capturing the class's attention except for the two human ice cubes, and in walked a shy pink-hair girl. "Everyone meet Haruno Sakura. She will be joining us for the remainder of school year. Make her feel welcome. Sakura-chan, tell your classmates about yourself, like your likes and dislikes." Sakura looked at the man than towards her classmates.

"Hai, Kakashi-sensei." But before she could begin her introduction she was interrupted by her newly acquired fan-boys, whose eyes are filled with hearts.

"Marry me Sakura-chan!"

"No, I saw her first!"

"No! She's mine! Bare my children!" they all yelled at her. She slowly backed away from the rest of the class towards the chalkboard, as they continued to yell at her. Her shy demeanour was suddenly filled with a terrified one, as she stood there with wide eyes looking at the scene before her. Her legs gave way and she crashed to the floor clutching her head to rid herself of these images.

"Yamete! Yamete…onegai! Yamete!" Sakura shrieked, still clutching her head. Her small form was trembling from head to toe, shaking her head refusing to let anyone touch her. Everyone stopped what they were doing and watch the scene unfold before them. The shaken girl began to cry as the memories of the past began to flash through her mind.

---x--- Flashbacks ---x---

Dark Alleyways

-- Flash!--

A gang of guys

--Flash!--

Weapons

--Flash!--

Screaming…voices… "What a pretty girl…-chuckles evilly-"… "Sai-nii-chan…Wake up onegai aniki!"…

--Flash!--

Blood _red_ eyes coming closer and closer…lots of pain and more screaming…sirens…than nothingness

---x--- End of Flashbacks ---x---

Everyone was shocked at what was becoming of the newcomer. A long haired blue-eyed teen was watching the scene unfold around her old childhood friend. "Everybody, back off you freaks!" Ino shrieked at the fan-boys as she approached Sakura. "Sakura-chan. Sakura-chan. Snap out of it! You know how bad it is for you!! Please look at me! It's me Ino! Please Sakura-chan!" the blonde begged as she crouched down to console the girl.

"Iie! Yamete! Onegai…don't hurt me or Sai-nii-chan anymore…onegai." The inconsolable girl whispered, backing away from Ino's touch. Suddenly, pain racked the young girl's body, sending it into coughing fits that conjured up the dark metallic smelling substance called blood. With each fit he breathing was slowing down. She was on the brink of passing out. Black and white dots clouded her vision as she tried to even out her breathing.

"Sakura-chan! Oh no. Kakashi-sensei!" shrieked the distressed blonde who is staring at her beloved friend. "Do something!"

"Naruto! Go call Shizune! NOW!" bellowed Kakashi.

Everyone stared at Naruto as he ran as fast as he could to the office. "Shizune-nee-chan! Come quick! There's something wrong with Sakura-chan!"

"Tsunade-sama!"

The busty blonde came out of her office with sake in her hand. "What is it Shizune?"

"It's imouto!"

"Nani?!" the principal hurled the bottle of sake at the wall as she snapped out of her drunken state.

"Hurry up baa-chan!"

The three of them ran to the classroom as fast as they can.

"Uzumaki! What is wrong with her?"

"I don't know! She was yelling yamete and something about hurting her and a kid named Sai. Then all of a sudden she started coughing out blood and her breathing started to become weird."

"Shit! Hurry up we have to get to her now!"

When they reached the classroom the door flung open with such force it scared everyone. "Everyone move away now!" Tsunade demanded. Everyone complied as they were scared of her fiery temper. Ino stayed nearby in case something happens to Sakura. The duo approached Sakura with caution scared that they might endanger her more. Sakura saw them approach her and backed away in fear while coughing even more. Her breathing became erratic and slowly slumped forward. Shizune made a grab for her before she could injure herself further.

Sakura immediately began to struggle against Shizune. "Shhh. It's okay now Sakura-chan. No one is going to hurt you anymore. Onee-chan is here."

"N-no o-one's g-going to hurt…S-Sakura-chan anymore?" she questioned, as she struggled to breathe and keep herself from passing out.

"Iie, imouto. No one is going to hurt you anymore."

"…" there was no answer, as she passed out from exhaustion.

"Good. She's finally calm down. Shizune give her the medicine now before she becomes any worse."

"Hai." Shizune prepared the needle and inserted it into the sleeping girls arm. " It's okay now imouto, it's okay. Kakashi-san?"

"Hai!?"

"Please help me bring her to the infirmary."

"Hai." He gently picked up Sakura bridal style and followed Shizune out of the class. Tsunade stayed behind to talk to the class and clean up the mess. Once she finished cleaning up the mess she turned to the class.

"Everyone return to your seats now." Everyone did so without saying a word. "Now that everyone is settled…WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED TO MY DAUGHTER!?" she demanded, her eyes ablaze. Everyone was scared except for Sasuke and Neji.

"Uhh…Tsunade-sama." said a timid voice.

"Hai, Ms. Yamanaka."

"Well…she was about to introduce herself, when her new fan-boys – she shot them a death glare that made them cower – interrupted her and began to yell obscene stuff at her and began to approach her. Then she began to become distraught and became like…that."

"Okay. I see. Arigatou Ms. Yamanaka." She faced the rest of the class. "As for everyone else, I'm only going to say this once, so listen up! No boy is allowed to approach Haruno Sakura until further notice understand?!"

"Hai!"

"But Tsunade-baa-chan. Why not?" Naruto whined.

Sasuke, Ino, Neji, and Hinata all sighed. " Dobe, did you not see how she reacted to the complete idiots who approached her earlier?"

"Damare, Sasuke-teme!"

Tsunade sighed. 'I need some more sake.' "Okay. The reason I said no boy is allowed to go near Sakura is because of various reasons. Here's the main reason why she won't allow them near her, it is because she is terrified of them and there are only two boys who exempt from this. Only females can approach her but that is it. Now you must understand that this does not give _anyone_permission to go and ask her against her will. That will can and only will be revealed by her." The door slid open and Kakashi walked back in with his book in hand. "Arigatou Kakashi-san."

"You're welcome, Tsunade-sama."

"Ms. Yamanaka please come with me.:

"Hai." Tsunade and Ino both left the classroom and headed for the office.

"Okay class, do pages 264 #1-50 for homework and there will be a test tomorrow on it. And fair warning to everyone, **do ****not**, I repeat **do not**say anything that happened today to anyone in the school. If I catch any rumour going around you all will be punished. Understand?" Kakashi said with a serious face.

"Hai sensei." The class chirped.

**Briinggg!**

"Class dismissed." Everyone got up and left slowly thinking of what happened today.

xxxxxxx In the Office xxxxxxx

"Ms. Yamanaka. I have a request of you. I want you to…"

_**To be continued…**_

PLEASE REVIEW ) This is my first fanfic.


	2. New Friends and Old Friends

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any of the characters in any way.

Arigatou Gozaimasu PhantomSoul103, Sakura0chan, Pri and Bana for reviewing & 101 hits isn't that bad either!

Arigatou Gozaimasu to all who have read my story and have put it on story alert and favourite story etc.

Forgotten

Chapter 2: New Friends and Old Friends

Groan. Squeak! As she turned on a soft surface. 'Nani?! A bed? At school? What's going on?' Slowly she opened her eyes and saw a white tiled ceiling. 'Eh?! The infirmary? What am I doing here?' As she sat up she saw someone sitting in the corner looking out the window. She blinked her eyes to rid herself of the fuzziness that had developed when she was unconscious. "Uhh…who is there?" Sakura said hoarsely.

The figure jumped. "Sakura-chan! You finally woke up! Oh my gosh. You don't know how much we were worrying about you!" Ino approached her with a glass of water she got from the side table. Sakura gladly accepted the water, to rid her mouth of an oddly familiar metallic taste.

"Ino-pig?"

"What did you say forehead-girl?"

"So it is you Ino!" Sakura said happily. "Why am I here? What happened? And why aren't you in class!?"

"Wait a minute let me call Shizune-san." Ino quickly left the infirmary yelling Shizune's name.

'Same old Ino.' She thought shaking her head.

"Sakura-chan! How are you feeling? You were out for 3 periods! It's the beginning of lunch now." Shizune asked as she came in through the door with Ino trailing behind.

"I'm fine. But what am I doing here?"

"Saku-chan, you had one of your attacks again and this time it was much worse. You coughed up even more blood than ever! Just look at your uniform!"

"Ehh?!" Sakura exclaimed as she looked down. Her jacket was painted with the crimson colour. She sighed "Where am I going to get a spare uniform for the rest of the day now?" she asked. She saw Shizune go through the cabinet and as she straightened she had in her hands and extra white blouse with the school symbol on it. **(A/N for those who don't know what the school symbol is, it is the symbol on the forehead protector of the Hidden Leaves.)**

"Gomen imouto. But this blouse is kind of smaller than the one you have. But this is the only one we have."

"Okay Shizune-nee-chan. But I'm not going to like this one bit." She complained. Sakura was one of the few girls who have the natural beauty type look. She didn't need make up to magnify or enhance her features. Her pale flawless skin along with her slightly rosy cheeks was enough. But Kami-sama had graced the young girl with innocent emerald eyes with long, think lashes. She had long creamy legs that looked like it went on for miles even if she was shorter than the average girl. Her long waist length bubble gum pink hair suited her well as for she was named Sakura after the cherry blossoms. To basically shorten it up, boys would drool over her and drop dead. She went to the bathroom in the infirmary to change into the new blouse.

"Okay. I'm done now. Now can I go? I'm starving and I want to hang out with Ino."

"Alright Sakura-chan just be careful for the rest of the day you are still weak from this morning's attack. Ino will have a syringe with her as an emergency and she will be in all of your classes with you."

"Hai. Now let's go Ino! I can't wait to eat! I'm hungry!"

"Hahahaha. You're starting to sound like Naruto." Ino said while laughing.

"Eh? Whose Naruto-san?"

"Don't worry. You know of him soon enough."

"Ja ne, Shizune-san."

"Ja." Shizune watched as Sakura was being dragged away by Ino.

"Itai, Ino-pig! That hurts. Stop it!"

"Stop complaining forehead-girl! You have to meet some of my friends!" Ino rambled on as she was dragging a protesting pink haired girl to the cafeteria. As they were heading to the lunchroom, they heard many cat-calls and wolf whistles.

"Looking hot girls!"

"Damn! They are fi-ine."

"I want some of _that!_"

"Ino-chan. Why are they looking at us that way?" Sakura asked as she hid behind Ino with a confused and scared expression. "They look like some possessed boys!"

"That's because they are perverted sickos who are mindless, sex-driven bimbos high on hormones." She let out a sigh. "Just ignore them ok? Don't worry about them; we'll protect you from these morons."

---x--- Flashback ---x---

"Ms. Yamanaka. I have a request of you. I want you to accompany Sakura-chan for the rest of the year and help her with classes and fitting in and what-not. You are her childhood friend and you know her best and you know what best suits her needs and you are the only one who knows about her condition. But there is something that had happened that made us move away from Konoha that you do not know." She sighed with a heavy heart; she looked at Ino with intense ember eyes that you do not often see in the headmistress often.

"What is it, Tsunade-sama?

"Ms. Yamanaka, what I am about to tell you must only stay between you and me. Please do not think any different of Sakura when you hear this and please treat her the same as if this didn't happen. Do I make myself clear?"

"Hai, Tsunade-sama."

"Arigatou Gozaimasu Ms. Yamanaka. Okay. This takes place on the first day of school for you guys; when you first attended the Academy. Sakura had self-esteem problems and you and Sai would always back her up and made sure that she was okay when she was bullied by others. When she and Sai came home that day…" Tsunade paused and took out a bottle of sake hidden in her drawer. Ino sweat dropped when she saw this. Tsunade swivelled her chair around to look outside. Taking a long sip from the bottle she continued. "When they came home that day, they couldn't find their parents…until they went into the kitchen." Tsunade turned her chair around while she took a long sip from her sake. "They were murdered Ino."

Ino gasped. "Oh my God! Poor Sakura-chan and Sai-kun." She began to silently cry to herself.

"But that isn't all Ino-san. They were to an orphanage later on, but they still attended the Academy. They both put on a façade that they were happy and everything was normal didn't they? I am not too clear on what happened that day though…only Sakura-chan can confirm what happened next. I presume that Sakura-chan and Sai-san went out to play and ended up lost or somewhat. Have you ever heard of Akatsuki Ino-san?"

"Hai. Only a little bit though. They are a gang of some sort right?"

"Hai. They are a gang; they are the notorious gang in all of Konoha. They do drugs, they steal, they rape, they fight and they don't care what happens or what the consequences are. When Sakura-chan and Sai-san were wondering the streets trying to find the orphanage, they ran into Akatsuki. They approached Sakura-chan and Sai-san, they tried to get away but…they went after Sakura-chan and her asthma got the best of her and she collapse. Sai-san protected her as they tried to take her. He died from a single stab wound to the heart. Sakura-chan tried to get away but she was too small. They…they raped her! They raped her at the age of 4!" Tsunade burst into tears.

"No…no they can't do this to her." Ino mumbled as she cried. She stood up and went over to Tsunade and comforted her. They stayed like this for at least 10 minutes. "Tsunade-sama…are you alright now?" Ino asked afterwards.

"Hai. Arigatou gozaimasu Ino-san. After that ordeal, Shizune and I found her and Sai-san when I came home from the bar. We heard screaming and crying and coughing. We went to investigate. She was on the verge of dying Ino! --Sniff -- We saw Sai-san next to her as she cried and screamed. We took both of them to the hospital where I examined her. Her asthma got – sniff -- worse. She has a heart and lung condition now due to the stress that occurred during that time frame. I adopted her afterwards to take -- sniff -- care of her and become her mother figure…but it wasn't the same. She became secluded from everyone and she shied away from everyone. That is why I want you to help draw her out of her shell. Is that okay with you?"

"Hai! I will do my best to help her."

"Arigatou gozaimasu, Ino-san."

---x--- End of Flashback ---x---

When they stepped into the cafeteria, Ino began to look for the group.

"OI! Ino-chan! We're over here!" Yelled Naruto

"Hai! Naruto-baka!"

"Ne, Sakura-chan that was the guy I was talking about earlier. Uzumaki Naruto. He's in our homeroom." Ino explained as they walked up to the table. "You guys, meet Haruno Sakura, my best friend from the Academy. Forehead-girl, meet Uzumaki Naruto, Hyuuga Hinata, Hyuuga Neji, Yoshida Ten Ten, Nara Shikamaru, and the cold bastard Uchiha Sasuke. Everyone here is basically together except for Sasuke."

"Hahahaha, Teme doesn't have a girlfriend." Naruto taunted at the irritated boy.

"Urusai, dobe."

"Konnichiwa, minna-san."

"K-konnichiwa//Hiya//Hey, troublesome woman//Hn//Pleasure to meet you Sakura-san.

"KONNICHIWA, SAKURA-CHAN! I'M UZUMAKI NARUTO!" The boy bellowed into her face, as she and Ino sat down at the table and got out their bentos and began to eat. Sakura was so startled by the sudden outburst she fell seat. She quickly stood up and hid behind Ino. Ino rounded on Naruto with an evil glint in her eye, while she was cracking her knuckles.

"What did Tsunade-sama say about scaring her Naruto-baka?" Naruto backed away in fear of the evil looking woman. Ino bonked him on the head with all her might a few times. A few seconds later when she was done, you can see Naruto with a bunch of cuts and bruises on his head.

"Itai, Ino-chan!" Hinata quickly went over to treat the injured ramen-lover. Hinata sighed. 'When will you ever learn Naruto?' She asked herself. "A-are you a-alright Naruto-kun?" she asked as she examined the fox-boy than finally embraced him.

"I'm fine Hinata-chan. Arigatou for asking. Ino-chan is just plain _**mean**_ to me. Pbtttt!" Naruto stuck out his tongue playfully at her behind his girlfriends back.

"Arghhh. Naruto-baka wants to die on the first day of school. – evil laughter –." "Troublesome women." Shikamaru mumbled as he restrained Ino. "Let me go lazy-ass! He's asking for it…grrrr." Ino growled as she struggled against the man restraining her. Naruto shrunk away and hid behind Hinata. "Gomen, Ino-chan. It was just a joke. Take it easy…onegai?" He pleaded with those brilliant cerulean eyes that seemed to be shimmering with tears. The blonde haired girl sighed. "Fine, Naruto-baka. I won't kill you…yet."

She stopped struggling against her boyfriend and slumped back into her chair. While all of this was happening poor Sakura-chan was just standing there lost and confused about her new friends antics. She sat down and began to eat her lunch again. "OI‼ Saku-chan!" Sakura snapped her head up to find the person who called out her name. She saw three familiar figures walking towards her, 2 males and a female to be exact. She gasped. "Temari-onee-chan! Kankuro-nii-chan! Panda-chan!" She jumped up and flew over to her old friends and jumped on Gaara and pulled him into a hug. **(a/n for those who are wondering why she can hug Gaara and Kankuro but is scared of others is that these two are the ones that are exempt from 'The Rule')** "What are you guys doing here? I thought that you guys weren't coming to visit me until later." She asked cocking her head to the side pouting slightly still clinging on Gaara who is currently turning blue from her strong clutches.

"Awwww. Why do they get to hug Sakura-chan and we can't teme?"

"Hn. Why should I know, dobe. Oi, Haruno. You're gonna kill your 'Panda-chan' if you don't let go of him."

"Eh?!" She exclaimed as she looked down at the red-haired boy wearing a school uniform and who is now purple in the face. "AHH!! Gomen, Gaara-nii-chan‼" She screeched as she let go of her 'brother'.

"Ne, Saku-chan, aren't you going to introduce us to your new friends?" Kankuro asked while glancing at his brother who is gasping for air.

"Everyone this is Temari-nee-chan, Panda-chan – GAARA! SAKURA‼ MY NAME IS GAARA NOT PANDA-CHAN! He yelled as he regained his lost breath – and Kankuro-nii-chan. Temari-nee-chan, Kankuro-nii-chan and Panda-chan this is Uchiha-san, Ino-pig, Nara-san, Hyuuga-san, Hyuuga-san, Uzumaki-san and Yoshida-san." The girl introduced quietly. **(A/N Sakura is only loud and outgoing when she's with Ino and the Sand Siblings.)**

"Ne, Sakura-san, just call us by our names, no formalities please."

"Hai and please drop the honorific from my name too please. You guys still never answered my question! Why are you guys here?"

"Oh. That. We transferred here so we could be near you Saku-chan." Temari said as she looked at everyone carefully, as if she expected them to do something to Sakura.

Just then an odd looking student dressed in the most atrocious garb Sakura ever saw in her life came into her view. He was wearing a green spandex suit with bandages wrapped around his hands and up his forearms and these horrendous orange colour leggings with blue roman sandals. His outfit was disturbing enough, but add the bowl-cut hair and fuzzy eyebrows and beady round eyes; you got a dude named Rock Lee. **(A/N Sorry Rock Lee fans, he scares me. No offense.) ** He approached their table at lightning speed and came to a halt in front of Sakura. "Good afternoon. How are you this youthful day? I am the youthful Rock Lee. Please be my girlfriend, cherry blossom-chan!" He said as he grabbed her hand and placed a kiss on it. Sakura jerked away with a glazed look in her eyes and she began to slightly tremble. Gaara and Kankuro saw Sakura's eyes and they immediately shoved Lee away from her, and shot a glare at the boy and slowly approached him with the upmost intent to murder the boy right then and there. Temari and Ino went up to Sakura and began to comfort the girl, who was off in her own world.

"Stay away from Sakura you freak. Don't you dare touch her again unless you want to die an early death." Kankuro said with menace dripping from his voice that gave him the aura of a cold-blooded killer.

Rock Lee backed away as Gaara silently grabbed his collar and pulled him off his feet. He raised his fist slowly and made a move to punch the guy's guts out but a small and fragile hand grabbed the suspended fist in mid-air. He looked back at the person holding him back…

_**To be continued.**_

Sorry for updating late. This chapter was a filler and I apologize if it wasn't as good as you expected.

Saku-Sasu soon enough. Please Review and constructive criticism is accepted.

X.x.SakuraUchiha.x.X

**Oh yeah their schedule is**

**P1. Math****-- Sakura, Neji, Ino, Naruto, Hinata, Sasuke, Shikamaru, Gaara**

**P2.**** English****-- Sakura, Sasuke, Shikamaru, Ten Ten**

**P3. Music****-- Sakura, Sasuke, Ino, Gaara, Hinata, Ten Ten,**

**Lunch****-- Everyone**

**P4. Art.****-- Sakura, Ino, Hinata, Ten Ten, Sasuke, Naruto, Neji**

**P5. Biology****-- Sakura, Sasuke, Naruto, Shikamaru, Ino**

**P6. Gym****-- Sakura, Sasuke, Shikamaru, Ino, Hinata, Neji, Ten Ten, Gaara, Naruto**

** Temari and Kankuro are in their senior year, their twins and Gaara is the youngest.**


	3. A Trip Down Memory Lane

Forgotten

Chapter 3: A Trip Down Memory Lane

Arigatou gozaimasu DarkxBlossom, x.X.SANOlover.X.x, Pri, Sakura0chan, gaarafaves, fallin'sakura-tenshi, and kerapal bubbles for reviewing.

Constructive Criticism is greatly appreciated. If you have any ideas what I can write about, just msg me!

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or any of the characters.

.x. _Recap .x._

Rock Lee backed away as Gaara silently grabbed his collar and pulled him off his feet. He raised his fist slowly and made a move to punch the guy's guts out but a small and fragile hand grabbed the suspended fist in mid-air. He looked back at the person holding him back…

"Blah" Normal P.O.V

**"Blah" inner****s**

---x--- Sakura's Little World ---x---

'Why is it that every time a guy comes up to me and tries to hit on me I always arrive here?'

**'That's because you want to escape the stupid, horny bastards that just want to get into your skirt.'**

Sakura was watching a 'movie' inside her head about her childhood, the good times she had with her friends and family. She saw herself getting picked on at school by the slut-wanna-be Ami, who made her childhood life a living hell. Flashes of her playing Sai was fading in and out of her vision. She saw herself drawing a picture of her family, playing the flute Sai got her for her birthday. 'I miss you so much. Why did all this have to happen to me?' She sobbed to herself.

**'Ne. Sakura, it's okay. Don't worry ****about it. You have ****the Sand sibs here with Ino and your new friends.**** They will always protect you, ne?'**

'You're right. They will always be there for me." She said smiling through her tears. She wiped her red-rimmed eyes with the back of her hand. "Everyone will help me…and I will take up the arts again, just for Sai-nii-chan.'

**'Uhh…outer…You might wanna wake up now, Gaara-kun is about to beat the living shit out of the weird green dude, and he might end up living in the hospital for the rest of his life.'**

'Oh. Crap. Stupid Gaara just had to be the most over-protective 'brother' ever, and so violent too!'

---x--- Normal P.O.V ---x---

Sakura snapped out of her trance and looked up to see Gaara swinging his pale fist towards the trembling being. She jumped up and grabbed his arm, to prevent any blood from being spilt. Everybody at the gang's table watched with some interest in what was going on. Gaara looked back to see that Sakura had captured his fist in her frail one, with a concerned look in her green sea-foamed eyes. She shook her head at him as she tightened her grip. His cold eyes had softened when he saw her. He rounded on the boy with cold indifferent eyes, than the moment earlier.

"I never want to see you do that EVER again to her. Understood?" he said menacingly. The said boy nodded his head viscously and began to back away, he turned his head to Sakura, and bowed humbly and said to her, "Gomen nasai. My name is Rock Lee. I'm sorry if I scared you. For my punishment, I will run 1000 laps around the school, and if I can't do 100 laps I will do 500 push-ups…"

Ino and Temari reached out to Sakura and pulled her towards the table. Sakura just gave the boy a weird look. "Sakura! Are you okay?" Temari and Ino asked in unison. Sakura turned around and gave everyone a weak smile.

"Yeah. I'm okay" she replied with a weak smile.

Everyone looked at her puzzled, amazed at how this girl can just go from traumatic to a girl who doesn't show much emotion. Sakura went back to eating her lunch, and just kept quiet while the others mingled amongst themselves. The silent Uchiha looked at the girl with an interested look. He saw how fragile and shy she looked on the outside, but when he looked at her eyes, he could see the hidden emotions that were yearning to let loose. There was something about the girl that intrigued him so. 'Is it because she isn't like any other girl that flings herself at him? Or was it something else?' He thought. He turned away from the girl and looked out the window. 'Hn. Why was he thinking about this girl?'

**'Maybe it's because you like her'**

'What the hell! Who the hell are you?!'

**'Well…I am your inner self. I was always here, you were just too stupid to realize it.'**

'Shut up, you stupid cocky bastard.'

**'So smart. You just called yourself a cocky bastard.'**

'Hn.'

**'You stupid unemotional bas—"**

Briinng! The lunch bell had interrupted Sasuke's thoughts. Everyone gathered all their belongings and headed to class. The girls including Sasuke, Naruto and Neji headed to art class. "Ne, Sakura-chan, why did you move back here from Suna?" The bun-hair girl asked with a touch of curiosity in her voice.

"I'm not totally sure Ten-Ten-chan. I think it was because of kaa-chan's job or something like that." She whispered as the continued their walk to class.

"Ne, Sakura-chan. Why don't you act like yourself when you are with us? Why don't you act like you do when you saw Gaara and them?"

Sakura stopped walking. Everyone looked back at her waiting for her to answer. She had her head looking down and her bangs covering her face, she was fiddling with the hem of her skirt as she struggled for words.

"Naruto-baka." Ino said in with a stern, brisk voice that cut cleanly through the tense atmosphere.

Naruto being a complete and total idiot was oblivious to the hint that was forcefully aimed at him. "Sakura-chan, why aren't you answering us?"

Everyone can sense the sad aura around the petite girl and sighed. "Naruto-kun. Let's hurry up and get to class ne? We can go eat ramen later, my treat!" The Hyuuga heiress said trying to coax her boyfriend into leaving the poor girl alone.

"Yatta! You're the best Hinata-chan!" He pulled the said girl into a bone crushing hug and landed a big one on her cheek. She burned crimson. "Come on Hinata-chan! We gotta get to class, so we can have ramen later!"

As the poor girl was dragged to class, she glanced at the group giving them and apologetic look before catching up with her hyper-active boyfriend. 'Stupid Naruto.' Everyone sighed and sweat dropped but the jade-eyed girl.

"Ne, Sakura-chan. Forget about that baka. You have your own reasons and when the times right, you can tell us about it ok? Now we got to get to class before the bell!"

Sakura brightened a bit; she flashed a fake smile at Ino that everyone but the Uchiha was oblivious to. "You're right. Let's get to class now! Lead the way now Pig!"

"Urusai, forehead-baka!"

Ten-Ten laughed at her friends childish antics. Neji just smirked while the chicken-hair boy just kept a blank face on the outside, but internally he was in turmoil. 'I agree with the dobe…why does she act this way? What was with that smile?'

They arrived at the classroom and everyone took their seats except Sasuke. He just stood at the entrance of the classroom with a confused look on his face.

"Oi! Teme! What's wrong with you! Class already started and you're just standing there like an idiot!"

Sasuke snapped out of his trance and sat down with a scowl on his face. The gang except Sakura was shocked at Sasuke's behaviour; he's always so calm and collected, what the hell happened? "Alright you maggots! Quiet down!"** (A/N: Guess who that is! ;) If you guess Anko-sensei you are right! Give yourself a pat on the back:))** The teacher demanded. "Today, you all will be drawing something of your childhood, either good or bad. And I don't care if you suck at drawing; it all depends on your emotions! You have the rest of the week to work on it and this is worth 15 percent of your mark; so put the effort into it. You may start now." **(A/N: It's a Wednesday)**

'What should I draw? There were so many good things that happened when I was younger. But then again, there were also so many bad things.' Sakura thought to herself as she looked out the window. She began to brainstorm on a sheet of paper. She began to reminisce about her past as she turned away from her paper and look out the window to the chilly autumn day.

--- x --- Sakura's Daydream/Memories --- x ---

"Oni-chan! Oni-chan! Look what I drew!" A 4 year-old Sakura yelled.

"Ahh! Great job Saku-chan! You're getting better every day! Someday you will be able to draw like me." The 5-year old complemented, as he examined the landscape drawing of a forest full of cherry blossoms.

"Arigatou, Sai-nii-chan." Exclaimed the bubbly girl.

The scene faded into another…

"Awwww… it's forehead girl. Who would ever like you? You're so ugly. No wonder you have no friends. Yamanaka is just your friend because she feels sorry for you."

"You're wrong Ami! Ino is my friend, and I'll make even more friends later!" Sakura sobbed. "Go away! You're all wrong."

In the real world, tears silently trailed down her pale face as she continued her journey throughout her childhood years. Everyone in the class was busy working on their painting that they didn't notice the lone girl by the window…out of all the people there only one person noticed and that one person was…

Cliffy‼ Thanks everyone who had reviewed! I'm surprised that I have more than 300 hits. Damn that's a lot! ;) If you have any ideas for the story just msg me!


	4. Sainiichan

Never Forgotten

Chapter 4: Sai-nii-chan…

Arigatou gozaimasu Azumi Nagasaki, Lady Teiana, Life's Little Problem, PR Sakura, kerapal bubbles, x.X.SANOlover.X.x, Sakura0chan, X.x.Ronald.Weasley.x.X, Krista, X.x.Panda-chan.x.X and Sliver-Nami- for reviewing.

&& A thanks to all who have put me on story alert or their favourites!

Constructive criticism is appreciated:)

Ehe. Sorry for updating so late. I don't have many ideas…which is sad. So feel free to msg me and give me some ideas for the story! ;)

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or its characters at all!

.X. Recap .X.

In the real world, tears silently trailed down her pale face as she continued her journey throughout her childhood years. Everyone in the class was busy working on their painting that they didn't notice the lone girl by the window…out of all the people there only one person noticed and that one person was…

'Why is Sakura crying? No one said anything to her. She's so confusing. Ahhh. Why am I thinking about a girl I don't even know?' a certain person thought.

"Oi! Sasuke-teme! Why are you spacing out like that? I called you a billion times already for the past 10 minutes. What's gotten you all spacey?" the fox-looking boy asked with a concerned look in his eyes.

"Nothing dobe. What do you want?"

"Hmm…I forgot."

Sasuke turned to the boy with a vein protruding from his forehead. "Naruto, you are so stupid!"

"Oh! I remember now. I was going to ask you what you were gonna draw for your picture." Naruto said with a big smile on his face.

"I don't know. Now leave me alone baka."

"Geez, Sasuke what's got you so pissed?"

"Hn."

Sakura was still in her own world, going through all of the good times of her life, and the bad times of her life. She saw herself playing the flute when she was younger. She loved playing it for Sai. But when he passed, she gave up on it, she never touched her flute ever again. It is hidden in her closet waiting to be played again. 'Maybe I should play it one last time in a couple days…just for him' she thought to herself. Sai's favourite holiday was Christmas and it was only a month away. **(A/N: its November 25****th****‼ ;P)**.

Briinggg. Riing! The period ended. "Listen you morons; remember that the project is due by the end of this week! Dismissed". Everyone slowly packed up and began to leave the classroom to get to their classes. Sakura quickly rubbed her eyes with the back of her hand to rid her face of any evidence of crying.

"Ne. Forehead-chan! Hurry up! We're gonna be late for class if you don't move your butt faster!" Ino screeched.

"Yara, Yara, Ino-pig. You're so loud, just like Naruto." Sakura said with a fake smile.

"Come on, we gotta get to bio. Asuma-sensei's gonna be mad if we're late!"

"Ok. Ok. Just slow down!"

The others were already heading to class as the two girls were exiting the class. "So what are you gonna draw for the assignment Saku-chan? I'm gonna draw us shopping!" Ino said with sparkles in her eyes.

"Ahh…still the same Ino I grew up with" The cherry blossom said shaking her cotton candy coloured head.

The said girls arrived at their class in the nick of time. Ino sat down with Shikamaru and Sakura beside her. "Everyone sit down. Today we will be learning about the human body; like the parts of the body and their functions." Asuma said as he passed out the sheets. "You will need a partner for this, since we have a new student, there will be one group of three. Everyone please proceed, and the textbooks are at the back of the class."

Everyone slowly got to work. Sakura looked around to see who she would be working with and she saw Ino talking to Shikamaru and didn't want to disturb them.

"Sakura-chan! Come work with me and teme!"

Sakura looked over to Naruto with a nervous smile. She looked back to Ino who gave her a reassuring smile before turning back to her precious Shika-kun. Sakura slowly gathered her belongings and walked over to Sasuke and Naruto with a small smile and seated herself in between the boys. "Let's get working shall we?" Sakura said in a small voice. She hated working in groups…especially if they make her do all the work, since she was top of her class since she was in school.

"Yeah!"

"Hn."

As the three were working on their assignment the other girls in the class were glaring at Sakura with envious eyes and were plotting to hurt her in some way. Sakura was oblivious to these acts as she continued her work. Sakura and Sasuke were done there work after 20 minutes while Naruto was struggling with it. He felt like tearing out his hair!

"Sakura-chan! Teme! Help me! I don't understand any of this! Gah! I'm going to fail this! And it's all gonna be teme's fault!"

"How is it _my_ fault if you fail baka?"

"I don't know, but it is!" Naruto replied.

Sakura watched the two with interest. 'How could these two be best friends if they act like enemies?' She wondered.

"Naruto…Did you know you only have a couple more minutes before class ends?"

"NOOOOO!‼‼‼! Sakura-chan! You gotta help me! I'm gonna fail and and-"

"Urusai baka. You talk too much."

"Sakura-chan! Teme is being mean to me!" he wailed.

"Uzumaki-kun. I suggest you stop yelling and ask nicely for help, rather than damaging everyone's ear drums." The dark haired teacher said while taking a drag from his cigarette.

"Fine. Stupid baka, teacher, no help at all…" Naruto muttered under his breath while turning back to his partners. "Ne, Sakura-chan and teme. Please help me with the ass—"

Briing! Ring!

"Okay class dismissed. Please hand in your assignment at the front desk. Enjoy the rest of your day!" Asuma said with a lazy hidden smile. Everyone got up and handed in their assignment and left the classroom. Sasuke, Sakura and Naruto walked slowly to their next class together, gym.

"Oh crap. I'm gonna fail this! Stupid Asuma-sensei. Always giving hard assignments."

"Naruto. It's okay. I did your assignment when you were yelling. So you won't fail. But, you are going to re-do everything once we get it back, since you didn't do anything." Sakura said with a small smile.

"Thanks you're the best Sakura-chan!" Naruto glomped the poor girl into a tight hug.

Sakura immediately began struggling for her release. "P-please let m-me go. Please." Her complexion began to pale quickly as the oblivious boy continued to hug the scared girl. Sasuke noticed the change in her aura and decided to take action.

"Dobe. Let her go, she's scared."

"Nani?" Naruto took a step back to look at the paled girl. Sakura scrambled away from Naruto and hid behind Sasuke unconsciously. Naruto looked at Sakura's trembling form with sad eyes.

"Ne, Sakura-chan, I'm sorry if I scared you. It's just that I'm glad that you helped me out with my work. I didn't want to fail bio because Asuma-sensei always gives hard assignments and I never get any of them done. So yeah…will you forgive me?" He asked while scratching the back of his head absentmindedly.

Sasuke turned around to see the small girl hiding behind him with a soften look. 'It seems like she has been through so much.' He observed. 'To be this scared of the opposite gender. Something must've happened to her when she was younger.'

"It's okay Naruto. I just don't like it when guys touch me." She answered with some hidden fear laced within her words.

"Hurry and let's get to class before Gai goes all 'unyouthful' on us for being late." Sasuke said in an irritated tone.

Naruto and Sasuke led the way to the gym class while Sakura lagged behind them. 'I feel bad for not telling them about my past. But the pain of it is too unbearable to remember. I feel really safe around Sasuke though…which is really odd because I only feel this way near Gaara and Kankuro since they are my brothers. Something about him makes me feel safe and secure, just like Sai-nii-chan.'

**'Have you ever thought that you felt safe near Sasuke is because he looks like Sai?'**

Sakura looked closely at Sasuke from behind. 'Yeah. You're right! He does look like nii-chan!'

**'Stupid idiot.'**

'Shut up! It's not my fault that I don't see these things easily!'

A voice broke through her argument with herself. "Haruno. Hurry up before we leave you alone in the hallway."

"Coming." Sakura picked up her pace to catch up to her newly found friends.

The trio went on towards the gymnasium. As they entered the doors there was a loud screech, a flash of green and a bright light.

'I knew something like this was gonna happen. Stupid dobe had to scare the girl.'

_**To Be Continued.**_

So yeah. End of Chapter 4! I changed the title of my story from **Forgotten **to **Never Forgotten.**

So Sorry I updated so late. -.-' Review Please! 3 X.x.SakuraUchiha.x.X


	5. An Eventful Day

Never Forgotten

Chapter 5: An Eventful Day

Thank you to deedee2034, Kura Uchiha-san, hrtSakura, tema-sama, LoveIsMyHate, i love hershey, X.x.Ronald.Weasley.x.X and SasuSaku Forever and Ever for reviewing!

Thanks to everyone who put my story on their favourites or story alert!

Remember that constructive criticism and any ideas for the story is welcomed! 

**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or any of the characters.**

.X. Recap .X.

Naruto and Sasuke led the way to the gym class while Sakura lagged behind them. 'I feel bad for not telling them about my past. But the pain of it is too unbearable to remember. I feel really safe around Sasuke though…which is really odd because I only feel this way near Gaara and Kankuro since they are my brothers. Something about him makes me feel safe and secure, just like Sai-nii-chan.'

**'Have you ever thought that you felt safe near Sasuke is because he looks like Sai?'**

Sakura looked closely at Sasuke from behind. 'Yeah. You're right! He does look like nii-chan!'

**'Stupid idiot.'**

'Shut up! It's not my fault that I don't see these things easily!'

A voice broke through her argument with herself. "Haruno. Hurry up before we leave you alone in the hallway."

"Coming." Sakura picked up her pace to catch up to her newly found friends.

The trio went on towards the gymnasium. As they entered the doors there was a loud screech, a flash of green and a bright light.

'I knew something like this was gonna happen. Stupid dobe had to scare the girl.'

Just as the trio walked through those huge gymnasium doors a flash of green and black flashed before their eyes, momentarily before a bright light streaked before them.

'Argh! What's with the bright light?' the blossom head thought to herself, as she shield her eyes from the flare.

'Stupid Gai and Lee.' The two boys thought simultaneously to themselves.

"YOU THREE ARE UNYOUTHFUL STUDENTS WHO ARE LATE TO MY YOUTHFUL CLASS. EXPLAIN YOURSELVES NOW OR ELSE YOU WILL HAVE TO RUN 150 LAPS, AND IF YOU CAN'T RUN 150 LAPS YOU WILL DO 100 YOUTHFUL PUSH-UPS…" The thick eye browed teacher rambled on while the rest of the class had a _huge_ sweat drop on their heads. 'Oh great. He is at it again…' everyone thought in unison. The many girls that populated the class glared at the pink head seeing as she was with the HOTTEST guys in the school and hasn't even realized it. As the teacher was talking to himself with rivers of tears running from his bug-like eyes, the trio went into their separate change rooms to put on their gym uniforms quickly and rushed outside to class. **(A/N: Girls uniform is a fitting grey shirt with a red school emblem on the back and on the front left side and black short shorts. Boys uniform basically the same kind of styled shirt and black basketball shorts.)** They had an even huger sweat drop on their heads when they saw Gai still rambling on about their punishment.

"OI! BUSHY-BROWS! TELL SENSEI TO START THE BLOODY CLASS ALREADY!"

After Sakura came out of the change room she rounded on Ino. "Ne, Ino-pig. Does he always talk like that? You know…the 'youthful' this and the 'youthful' that." She emphasized using air quotes.

Ino let out a huff of air. "Sadly, yes he does." She admitted with a grim expression as she watched the loud mouth blonde yell at the rambling sensei.

"Yosh! Welcome my youthful students! Today we will enjoy a very youthful class with all of our youthful friends in a youthful game of DODGEBALL! All those unyouthful students who do not want to play may sit out on the bench, and all of those YOUTHFUL students may gather themselves in the middle with Uchiha-kun and Lee-kun as captains of the two teams."

The girls and a few others lined each other up waiting to be picked and the guys did the same with a few extra guys just standing around waiting to be picked. Sasuke stood to the right and Lee the other side. They began calling out to the 14 people before them to join their team.

**Sasuke's Team**

**- Sasuke**

**-**** Sakura**

**- Shikamaru**

**- Hinata**

**- Kiba**

**- Hayate**

**- Gaara**

**- Ino**

**Lee's Team**

**- Lee**

**-**** Neji**

**- Ten-Ten**

**- Cho****u****ji**

**- Idate**

**- Naruto**

**- Kana – ****Sasuke's Fan girl**** x.x**

**- Ami – Major ****Sasuke Fan girl**** X.X**

"Yosh! Let's get this youthful game started!" Everyone went to their respectful sides and waited for the whistle to mark the starting of the 'war'.

"Ne, Saku-chan, remember be careful and don't over exert yourself, but if you do I'll be there to help you ok?" Ino said with a tinge of hidden fear that something might happen to her during the intense game.

"Hai, hai. Don't worry about me I'll be fine. Just enjoy the game." Viridian eyes scanned her surroundings as everyone took their positions waiting the signal.

_TWEET!_ Gai's whistle blasted through the air and the games begin! Sakura was immediately pelted with red coloured balls that sailed through the air with incredible speed courtesy of Ami. With ease, Sakura began dodging the balls left and right. She looked as if she was dancing across the gym floor rather than dodging the hazardous flying objects. Though her health conditions weren't helping her at all. Her stamina began to gradually decrease as her condition caught up to her. Ino looked over at Sakura's flushed face. She rushed over to Sakura's side as soon as she saw Sakura's 'dance' falter a bit as she gradually slowed down. Kana saw this as an opportunity to team up with Ami and attacked the duo with a killing intent. Shikamaru saw this happened and rushed over to help protect the two from receiving any injuries.

Sasuke watched as the two balls were hurled at the girls and too rushed to help protect his teammates. **(A/N: I know, I know…too OCC….")** Ino and Sakura saw the two balls coming towards them and shut their eyes expecting to get hit, but it never happened. The two opened their eyes and saw to figures surrounding them with hardened expressions glaring at the opposite team. Sakura's face began to pale a bit as her breaths began to come out in even shorter pants as her exhaustion caught up to her. Ino snapped her attention back to Sakura's form. Everyone in the gym stopped what they were doing and watched the scene unfold once again.

"Shika-kun! Sasuke! Watch over Sakura for a minute!" the blonde teen shrieked as she ran off to get her bag. Shikamaru and Sasuke watched the pained expression on Sakura's face and this morning's events flashed through their heads. Hinata, Ten-Ten and Gaara rushed over to the girl. Gaara picked her up bridle style and put her on the bench. Ino ran up to Sakura and pulled a mask over her face to allow her to concentrate on filling her lungs with oxygen and she readied an injection filled with medicine to help calm her breathing down. As the jade-eyed beauty's breathing regulated itself once again, she passed out. Gaara's eyes filled with worry as he looked at Sakura's sleeping form. He let out a sigh. 'What an eventful day for you eh Sakura?' He picked her up and walked out of the gym silently. As soon as he left the gang looked at each other and worry was evident in their eyes, all except Sasuke and Neji who didn't show it. Ino ran out to catch up with Gaara.

"I hope Sakura-chan is going to be alright. I don't think two attacks like that in one day are good for her." Hinata said with sadness and worry radiating off of her for her new friend.

"YOSH! EVERYONE GET CHANGE AND HAVE A YOUTHFUL EVENING!" Gai yelled out to the remaining students of the class. He was clearly oblivious to the happenings in the gym. Everyone complied not wanting to stay with the freaky teacher and headed home.

xxxxxxx Meanwhile with Gaara and Ino xxxxxxx

The pair looked at Sakura with sadden expressions as they know what had caused her to become like this. They were both angry at why this could happen to such an innocent and naïve girl with little care in the world. Why had _those_ people targeted her? As the rounded the corner they spotted Shizune exiting a classroom.

"Shizune-chan!" Ino called out.

Shizune whirled around to the voice calling out to her. She spotted the red head with a sleeping beau in his arms and Ino walking next to him.

"Kami! What happened now?"

"Well…long story short. Two jealous bitches went all out in her in dodge ball. She tired herself out trying to defend herself and ended up like this. She probably doesn't even know why they targeted her and not anyone else." Ino said with an exasperated voice as she shook her head.

"What a day for her. Two attacks in one day and one was mentally horrifying for while the other was physical exhaustion. She might not even wake up until the day after tomorrow. Gaara-kun can you drive her home for me. Tsunade-sama and I have to stay late after school and might not be back till dark."

Gaara nodded as he looked down to the pale girl.

"Arigatou Gaara-kun. Tell Kankuro-kun and Temari-chan to watch over her as well when you guys get home and make sure that when you guys get home get her hooked up to the machines so she can breathe easier."

"Hai, Shizune-nee. We know the drill." He walked away with Sakura in his arms. Ino looked at Shizune and bowed and ran off to Gaara to help him with Sakura.

"Ino-san. Can you call Temari and Kankuro for me and tell them what happened? We need to get home fast so nothing else will happen. Tell them to meet me by the car."

Ino nodded and ran off to the senior's wing to the find the twins. Gaara exited the building and walked swiftly towards the car taking extra precautions not to wake the sleeping female. He open the car door with little difficult and put Sakura in the back seat and buckled her in safely. He pulled his body from the car and stared out towards the exit waiting for his siblings. He saw the door swing open with such force that the hinges almost snapped off. Two figures ran towards him and skidded to a halt in front of him panting heavily.

"What – pant - happened to – pant - Sakura/Saku-chan? – pant -" The two siblings screeched.

"Shut up. Get in the car and I'll explain on the way."

The three got in the car quickly and pulled out of the school parking lot.

"Sakura-chan basically over exerted herself in gym class from two psychotic bitches in dodge ball and yeah." Gaara said from the passenger seat as Temari raced down the road.

"Stupid bitches want to die!" Temari said as red filled her greyish coloured eyes.

"Worry about that later. We have to get Sakura home first."

Temari nodded and pulled up into their average sized mansion. Gaara quickly undid his belt and picked up Sakura and rushed into the house. Her face looked flushed and her temperature began to gradually rise.

"Shit." Gaara cursed under his breath.

He brought her up to her specialized room with all her medical equipment and put her on the bed and pulled an oxygen mask over her porcelain face. He inserted an IV into her arm and another needle filled with her medication in the other arm. Temari and Kankuro walked into the room and stared at their imouto with a saddened expression. Temari walked into the bathroom and got a wash cloth dunked in cold water and wringed if before putting it on her head while Kankuro pulled a blanket over her torso.

The three of them looked at her and sighed. 'This is going to be a long night for all of us.' They thought to themselves. They settled down around the couch at the opposite end of the room and waited for the sick girl to wake up.

_**To Be Continued.**_

Finally the end of Chapter 5!

Please review. March break is going to be boring….''

Thanks for reading.

X.x.SakuraUchiha.x.X


	6. Don't want to be weak no more

Never Forgotten

Chapter 6: Don't Want to be weak no more

Thanks to X.x.Panda-chan.x.X, x.X.SANOlover.X.x, Kura Uchiha-san, LoveIsMyHate, Chibi Strawberry Neko, Lady Teiana, and hrtSakura for reviewing.

+ an extra thanks to **hrtSakura **for the idea for the story. 33

Konnichiwa or Konbanwa minna-san! Thanks to everyone who put me on story alert and what not! .

I really appreciate it.

'member constructive criticism is appreciated. b.d

**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or any of its characters.**

* * *

_.X. Recap .X._

He brought her up to her specialized room with all her medical equipment and put her on the bed and pulled an oxygen mask over her porcelain face. He inserted an IV into her arm and another needle filled with her medication in the other arm. Temari and Kankuro walked into the room and stared at their imouto with a saddened expression. Temari walked into the bathroom and got a wash cloth dunked in cold water and wringed if before putting it on her head while Kankuro pulled a blanket over her torso.

The three of them looked at her and sighed. 'This is going to be a long night for all of us.' They thought to themselves. They settled down around the couch at the opposite end of the room and waited for the sick girl to wake up.

* * *

**Sakura's Morning**

Dream Sequence

Sakura looked around to see nothingness but her ears picked up a sound. She wandered slowly towards the noise and with every step she took the sound became louder.

'It sounds like…a child laughing.' She thought to herself.

Suddenly a flash of light began to appear before her eyes slowly and gradually getting bigger until all the darkness had disappeared. 'Odd…' She scanned the new scenery around her and was awed by the sight before her. She was in a beautiful garden with a koi pond and a bridge across the water and she turned a bit and was faced with rows and rows of Sakura trees with their petals dancing about and falling towards the earth. Then she heard that little girl's laugh again and a soothing yet sad melody was playing in the background. She walked further up the garden and found a young girl with pink tresses playing the flute and a younger boy leaning against the trunk of the trees sketching in a notebook.

'Ahh…this must be when me and Sai-nii-chan were younger. I remember this; this was the last day of the summer break before school started for us. And the last day we ever saw kaa-san and tou-san.' Tears began to flow down her flawless face as she watched herself and Sai talk to each other and play around like little kids were meant to do.

Then the sky began to darken quickly and her surroundings began to warp into a dark and dreary alleyway where it all began. She began to tremble and collapsed onto her knees clutching at her head to rid herself of the painful memories of the past. 'No…no…not again…please anything but this.' She sobbed to herself. She saw shadows out of the corner of her red-rimmed eyes and she began to get scared all over again. She tried to run away from the memory but her body refused to move. Her eyes were shut tight and her hands clamped over her ears to prevent any screaming from entering her ears. Her brother was murdered right before her eyes, blood splattering her red dress, staining it with a sticky red substance with each stab. A tall shark-like man was laughing and cackling as he continues to stab the half dead boy, relishing the screams coming from the young boy's mouth. Soon the screaming ceased and the man began to lick his knife clean tasting the blood and bloodlust began to grow once again in his eyes. Sakura ran over to her brother sobbing on his wound screeching for him to open up his eyes.

As Sakura watched this scene she wince hearing her younger form crying for her brother, she began to cry to herself harder and louder, she mentally berated herself for being weak and unable to help him.

'Why did I have to be so weak? Why nii-san? Why did you have to protect me from these foul men?'

"What a pretty girl… maybe we can have some fun with the blossom." A man with a light blue tinted skin said, his gill-like tattoos moving as his muscles were contracting and loosening as he talked. "Don't you think so…hmm...Itachi-kun?"

The said male looked down at the four year old girl sobbing and calling out her brother's name.

"Sai! Sai-nii-chan wake up! Onegai! Don't leave me…not like they did! Please…please…"

Itachi at the age of 10 was part of the infamous gang called Akatsuki. His personality was cold, calm and icy, yet cunning just like a weasel. The boy's eyes were one of his traits; blood red eyes that the mangekyou sharingan reside in making him look even more intimidating than usual. He silently approached the sobbing girl as she buried her tear-stained face in Sai's chest covered in a crimson liquid and grabbed her hand. He threw her against the wall where she cried out in pain and fell to her knees attempting to escape their clutches. She saw feet approaching her and looked up to crimson eyes and backed away in the fear that was developing rapidly. He bent down and pulled her chin upwards a crushed his mouth on her pale quivering lips and pushed her down none too gently. Sakura began to struggle futilely against the older male. The Uchiha began to undress her shirt with a lustful intent growing in his eyes.

"Stop! Please!" She begged squirming from underneath the weasel.

Itachi acted as if he didn't hear anything and made a move to pull down her shorts…--

End of Dream Sequence

Sakura bolted up with a startle gasp, sweating and shaking. It has been a long time since she had _that_ dream. She pulled her legs to her chest and buried her flushed face to her knees panting, tears streaming down her face. She scanned the room and spotted her siblings lying down on the couch sleeping peacefully.

'I hate this! I hate being so useless and a burden to everyone. I want to act like my old self; confident and free from everything.'

She slowly made a reach for the drip and the mask, but the bed creaked and groaned waking up Gaara. Gaara slowly open up his eyes and looked around and saw Sakura painfully sitting up and rushed over to her side. Sakura quickly masked her face so Gaara wouldn't question her abrupt awakening.

The pink haired girl looked over to him and meekly said, "Ohayo, Panda-chan."

He helped her remove all the wires from her body and turned his pale jade eyes towards her and gave a concerned look then replied with a simple 'hn'. Sakura sighed as she heard this response. The other two siblings lying on the couch woke up with a start and wildly looked around and their eyes landed on Sakura. They quickly bolted up and rushed to her bombarding her with billions of questions.

"Are you alright?"

"Do you want to stay home today?"

"Did you sleep well?"

"Do you need any medication?"

They both cut each other on and off until Sakura and Gaara both bonked them over the head harshly.

"Itai. Gaara/Sakura-chan!" They both whined.

"I'm fine. Now stop badgering me."

Just then Tsunade and Shizune holding Ton-Ton waltzed through the door and up to Sakura's bed. Worry was evident in both pairs of eyes. Ton-Ton jumped out of Shizune's arms and pounced on Sakura, sticking her snout into her stomach.

"Bweee…bwiee."

"Hai, hai…I'm alright. Stop asking me that." Sakura said with an exasperated voice aimed at the newcomers.

Tsunade went over to Sakura's side and put her hand on her forehead.

"You don't have a fever anymore…so I guess you can go to school…it starts in an hour so you have plenty of time to get ready and just relax."

"You mean…that we have an hour just for you to drink sake…and relax okaa-san" Sakura giggled and everyone knew that everything was alright.

Sakura got up slowly from her bed and walked into her walk-in closet and got out her uniform and undergarments and stalked towards the washroom to freshen up.

"Ne, minna-san. I'm going to take a shower so everyone can go and get themselves ready for school.

Everyone went back to the respective rooms to get ready for the day. In the shower Sakura was pondering on what to draw for her art project for she only two days left 'til it was due.

'Hmm…what should I draw? Should I draw a good or a bad memory? Hmmm…" She silently thought to herself as the warm water ran down her body then going down the drain.

'**Maybe you should draw something that is a mix of the good and the bad times.'**

'Probably…We'll see about it…it's due tomorrow anyways.'

"OI! Sakura-chan! It's almost time for school hurry up in there!"

"Ah shoot! I'm late! Man was I in here that long?"

Sakura quickly turned off the water and dried herself off. She pulled her hair into a messy bun with chopsticks and pulled on her uniform and grabbed her bag and rushed down the stairs nearly running Ton-Ton over as the pig walked to the door. Sakura stumbled as she held the wall for support as she put on her shoes.

"Gomen Ton-Ton." With that said she ran out the door and flung the car door open and buckled herself in slamming the door in the process.

"Hey! BE careful with my beautiful baby Sakura! You're going to scratch up the paint job I just did a couple of days ago." Kankuro complained as he backed out the driveway and headed towards the school.

Sakura looked out the window watching the scenery blur by as the car sped away; the three others looked at each other discreetly knowing that she had a nightmare, but didn't push it seeing her so peaceful and relaxed. The black car pulled up into the school parking lot and caught the attention of many of the students in the yard. The car stopped and the four of them walked out and went their separate ways; there was still 15 minutes until class starts.

Sakura walked to the school's garden and sat down on a bench placed under a forest of cherry blossom trees. The pink petals dance around as the soft breeze wound through the branches, slowly making the blossoms float to the ground covering the grass in a soft pink blanket. Sakura relaxed visibly and thought about her past.

'Sai-nii-chan. I wish you were here, just like when we were younger…playing together and drawing. I miss you all so much.'

Sakura felt a gentle wind caress her face and closed her eyes knowing it was her older brother. She could hear his voice as the wind continue to hug her, _'Keep on smiling pinky like you always do._' Sakura opened her eyes and took out her flute that she found in the back of her closet and put it to her mouth and began to play a sad melody. **(A/N: Sadness and Sorrows)** She began to close her eyes once again as the melody carried itself with the wind and travelled throughout the school yard. The wind blew all around her tossing her pink tresses around her body making her at peace, losing herself in the song, she continued to play the piece over and over again, just like she use to for Sai.

* * *

**Sasuke's Morning**

"Sasuke-chan! Wake up! It's time for school" A cheery feminine voice called from his doorway.

Sasuke stirred from his king sized bed groaning as his mother entered his room and threw back the curtains and made her way to his bed, pulling off his black silky comforter. He groaned out loud and covered his eyes from the sun's bright, teasing rays and rolled over. Sasuke is _not_ a morning person. His mom began to grow impatient.

"Uchiha, Sasuke if you do not wake up now I will throw you out of bed with the help of our butlers and lock you out of the house where your fangirls will attack you." She threatened in a menacing voice, her eyes darkened with a mischievous glint.

Sasuke bolted up and ran for the bathroom; being the non-morning person he is ran right into the door and fell flat on his butt. His mother laughed at her son's antics.

"Mou, okaa-san. That's mean." Sasuke whined sleepily as he got up from the floor while rubbing his sore nose.

'Works like charm.' Mikoto snickered as she walked out of the door to help prepare breakfast for her son.

Sasuke brushed his teeth and then took a shower. He got out and dried himself up and put on his uniform. He attempted to brush his hair, but it always spiked up at the back. He got his bag and walked downstairs where the smell of food attacked his senses.

'Tomatoes and onigiri.' He thought to himself, mentally drooling.

"Ohayo, kaa-san. You really like to see me run into the door don't you?" He asked pouting a bit.

"Of course, Sasu-chan. I absolutely love it when you do." She replied cheekily as she set down a plate in front of him.

Sasuke ignored her reply and ate his breakfast quickly. As he was finishing his breakfast his father walked in through the door and sat down.

"Ohayo anata."

"Ohayo, otou-sama."

"Ohayo." He replied with a small smile.

Uchiha Fugaku is the president of the famous Uchiha Corporations that deals with the trading industry as well as designer clothing. He accepted his wife's plate of food and began to eat slowly. Sasuke got up from the table and put his plate in the sink and kissed his mother on the cheek.

"I got to go now mom, dad." He walked out the door and popped open his trunk and stuffed his bag in it. Sasuke unlocked his car and sat down; starting his car he made his way to Naruto's house to pick him up. He pulled up to the Uzumaki Mansion and the gates opened up for him. The car stopped and Sasuke honked the horn of the car. Bang! The door flung open and a flushed Naruto ran out with his book-bag in hand and a bowl of ramen in the other. The blonde male's shoes were untied as he fled down the long marble steps and he tripped down the remaining 7 steps. The bowl of hot ramen flew out of his hand and landed on the ground.

"NOOO‼ MY RAMEN‼ WHY!?" Naruto cried over his beloved ramen.

Sasuke sweat dropped at the sight and sighed as he got out of the car.

"Dobe-no-baka, hurry up. We got school." He said as he pulled the depressed boy by the collar and dragged him into the car and drove off.

Naruto was sulking in his seat, sniffing every so often as they sped down the streets.

"Urusai dobe. If I buy you a bowl of ramen at lunch would you shut up and stop complaining?"

"Thanks teme." Naruto said grinning like nothing had happened.

'Stupid dobe. Every morning it's the same. He'll never learn.'

Sasuke pulled up into the school parking lot furthest away from the building to avoid the fangirls mobbing his car. They got out of the car and began the long walk to the school.

"OHAYO, HINA-CHAN!" The cerulean eyed boy yelled out to his girlfriend.

"Ohayo Naruto-kun." She replied as she walked over to him smiling at his greeting.

The couple walked off in their own direction leaving Sasuke alone – they didn't want to deal with his fangirls .. Sasuke avoided the group of girls near the entrance of the school waiting for his arrival and walked to the school's garden, his sanctuary away from the busy world. As he approached the garden he heard a sad melody playing from his refuge and sped up his pace. Once he arrived there, he was astounded by the sight before him. He saw the new girl sitting under the cherry blossom trees playing her flute with a soft, serene expression on her face, her hair dancing around her like the pink petals were. Her song was so sad yet so expressive, she seemed so relaxed and at peace, unlike yesterday when she was scared and jumpy. He felt her pain and sorrow as the song went on and became mesmerized by the piece and became lost in his own world, in a world full of his own painful memories. He was awakened from his thoughts when the song ended. He began to clap as he approached Sakura.

* * *

**Sakura's POV**

I ended the song and opened my eyes when I heard clapping. I looked around and I saw Sasuke walking towards me with a small smile on his usually cold face. I look away as I felt my face turn red and busied myself on putting my flute away in its case. As I put my case away, I heard his footsteps draw closer and closer until I heard it stop a foot away from me and I looked up and saw him staring at me and then he sat down beside me and he closed his eyes. He looked so at peace and content unlike the other times I saw him. I remembered he was one of the people who helped me yesterday.

"Thank you Sasuke-san for helping me yesterday during gym." I said in a small voice looking at the petals falling.

"Hn."

'What type of answer is that? Hn.'

I was about to ask him what that meant, but the bell rang. I got up and began to walk to class when I heard Sasuke walking beside me; I turned and saw him looking down at me.

"Come on." He said as he walked ahead of me.

"Hai." I replied as I ran a bit to catch up with him.

The walk to class is quiet but comfortable. As we approached the classroom, I can hear Ino-pig yelling about someone being lazy. Sasuke opened the door and walked through and I followed after. Strangely enough, everyone quieted down and stared at us. I began to get nervous and started to poke my fingers together keeping my head down. Sasuke seemed unfazed by the sudden attention and continued to walk to his seat in the back. I slowly made my way to Ino but the door opened and Kakashi-sensei walked in with the same orange book I saw him with yesterday.

"Okay class. Today I'm going to assign you all a group project that is going to be due in 2 weeks, and I get to choose your groups." He said with a smile behind his mask. "Sakura, please sit beside Gaara."

"Hai."

I made my way to Panda-chan and sat down with a smile. He looked at me with a blank stare and turned towards the window facing the cherry blossom garden. I sighed.

'This is going to be a long day.'

* * *

Please review! X.x.SakuraUchiha.x.X


	7. Musical Gifts

* * *

Never Forgotten

Chapter 7: Musical Gifts

Thanks to Kuai Kumori, x.X.SANOlover.X.x, so stupid its genius, X.x.Ronald.Weasley.x.X, XxMiyakaxX and X.x.Panda-chan.x.X for reviewing!

Thanks to all those who have put me as favourite author or story alert! I really appreciate it.

Any ideas or constructive criticism is greatly appreciated.

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any of its characters.

* * *

_.X. Recap .X._

"Okay class. Today I'm going to assign you all a group project that is going to be due in 2 weeks, and I get to choose your groups." He said with a smile behind his mask. "Sakura, please sit beside Gaara."

"Hai."

I made my way to Panda-chan and sat down with a smile. He looked at me with a blank stare and turned towards the window facing the cherry blossom garden. I sighed.

'This is going to be a long day.'

* * *

"Ahhh! Can you believe that Kakashi-sensei assigned us a project and it's only the second day of school?" Naruto whined as they were walking down the halls to their next class.

"Don't complain too much Naruto. You're just scared you're gonna fail math. Without Hina-chan here, you'd still be in elementary school." Ino teased with smirk planted on her face.

Everyone in the group sighed at the two bantering loudly throughout the halls. Every so often someone would glance their way giving them a weird look before making their own way to their class.

"Don't worry Naruto-kun. I'll help you with it." Hinata said smiling at her boyfriend.

"Thank you Hinata-chan!" Naruto yelled as he glomped the timid girl.

Neji glared at the blonde, his over protective side taking over him. Naruto turned around feeling a deadly aura behind him and his eyes met furious pale ones. Naruto's eyes widened in fear and cowered behind Hinata.

"Naruto, get your paws off of my cousin if you want to live. If not I suggest you run if you want your precious jewel to still be intact in the next 5 minutes." Neji threatened, veins bulging from the side of his eyes. "Remember, I can find you anywhere, with my eyes Naruto."

Naruto began to whimper like a lost dog behind Hinata. Neji advance slowly towards the couple with a murderous intent on hurting a certain blonde.

"Ahh! Hinata-chan…Neji-teme is going to kill me!" Naruto shrieked like a girl running away from Neji down the hallway. Neji darted after the boy for a couple of meters than stopped and regained his composure, then began to walk at the same pace as everyone else.

Sasuke looked at the timid pinked hair girl and began to ponder whether he should ask her where they should meet up for their project.

'Ne, Sasuke. Maybe you should ask her to come over to your house for project.'

'She's probably going to freak out on us or something. Might as well get this thing over with.'

"Oi, Haruno. My house afterschool. Math project. Uchiha mansion, on the corner of main. I'll drive us there." Sasuke said in his monotonous voice as he stared at the small girl.

Sakura looked up towards the boy and blinked, trying to comprehend what he just said. She just nodded and looked forward. Sasuke was surprised to see the girl look away from since he was use to seeing the female population drooling over his very existence. He laughed inside thinking of those revealing whorish things that call themselves humans. When Sasuke and Sakura reached the classroom they already saw Ten-Ten poking at a sleeping Shikamaru with a sharp pencil. He woke up with a start.

"Troublesome women, always poking at me. They never leave me alone." He muttered under his breath rubbing the red spots on his arms.

Ten-Ten laughed at his expense and misery. She saw Sakura and Sasuke walking in from the door and called them in to sit with them before Ibiki-sensei walks in the door to start the English lesson on the boring play Henry V by William Shakespeare.

"Hey Sakura-chan, Sasuke. How are you guys?" Ten-Ten asked poking at the Shikamaru who was sleeping away on his desk with a pile of drool forming on his desk.

Sakura looked at Ten-Ten and watched her poke at the sleeping boy with the pencil with some curiosity on why he didn't wake up and tell her to stop. Sasuke on the other hand looked at Shikamaru with disgust.

"Nothing really Ten-Ten-chan. Sasuke and I were just discussing our project for math before coming to class."

"Hn." Sasuke replied agreeing with what Sakura said.

Just then Ibiki walked through the door with a dark aura surrounding his demeanour.

"Everybody sit down and get out your novel on Henry V and read act 1. Be prepared for a test on it tomorrow. You may get into a group and act it out or you may sit and read silently. That would be all, and don't bother me unless you want to have detention." Ibiki said with a grin. He then sat down and began to do his paperwork for his Psychology class for 3rd period.

"Shikamaru wake up so we can act this thing out and be done with it already." Ten-Ten said with a touch of annoyance at the sleeping boy.

He woke up with a grunt and opened his eyes, slowly rubbing the sleep out of his eyes he glared at Ten-Ten for waking him up from his dreams on clouds.

"Now that sleep-head has woken up let's work on this thing, cause I don't want to fail this class."

Everyone agreed and began working on the Act I. They just sat down and read the lines to each other, stopping every once in a while to figure out what the scene was about. Soon the bell rang and everyone walked out of the class. Sasuke, Sakura and Ten-Ten walked towards their next class, music, talking a bit on the way. Well…Ten-Ten interrogating Sakura on what she likes and her hobbies and so on and so forth and Sasuke looking bored but listening in on the conversation. The three of them arrived at their class to be attacked by Ino with a hug.

Kurenai-sensei watched the scene with an amused expression. She hasn't seen any group of friends so different yet they seem perfect for one another in many ways. She decided to get the class started and began roll call. When she was done she told everyone to warm up on their instruments or their voices. Sakura not knowing which one she was assigned went to ask Kurenai-sensei what she should do.

"Ano…Kurenai-sensei what do I do? I wasn't here yesterday for class. Gomen for missing it yesterday." Sakura said bowing her head towards the teacher.

Kurenai not use to having a student bow to her with such respect was flustered and raised Sakura's head.

"Please don't bow to me. I'm not use to it." She said chuckling. "What can you do, Sakura-chan? Can you sing?...Perhaps you can play an instrument?"

Sakura began to ponder her choices. 'Should I sing or should I tell her that I can play the flute?'

"Ano, sensei? Can I sing you a part of a piece and play my instrument so you can decide what I should do?"

"Of course! That's an excellent idea! What song will you be singing for us?"

"Us?" Sakura asked confused with the plural word.

"Oh yes I forgot. When you are choosing what you are to play, you have to play or sing in front of the class, so I can see your abilities in performing in front of an audience, because we have a concert for the Spring Festival in April where everyone has to perform either individually or in a group or as a class."

Sakura's eyes widened at the thought of performing in front of her class, she was a nervous wreck just thinking about it. But in front of a live audience in a concert was just pushing it.

"Umm…okay. I'll sing first then play my flute. Is that okay sensei?"

"Of course. Everyone quiet down. We have to be polite and courteous to Sakura-chan as she performs her first piece in front of us." The ruby-eyed teacher called towards the class.

Everyone quieted down and sat at their respected seats.

Sakura stood in front of the class and fidgeted nervously playing around with her skirt thinking of what song to sing for them. She finally decided to sing 'Pocketful of Sunshine' by the English singing star Natasha Bedingfield. **(A/N: I Don't own the song even though I wished I did…Totally love this song :))**

Sakura started off a little bit shaky and soft but as she stared at her friends and looked back on why she loved this song so much, she wanted to forget everything that happened in her past and this song helped her get through it. As she sang her heart out, she closed her eyes and thought back to the days were she, Ino and Sai would always go into a forest of Sakura trees and sit there singing and playing around like the little kids they were. But then she remembered that Sai was gone, but still lived in her heart, so she sang the song out for him, to tell her brother that she was okay. Tears unconsciously rolled down her shut eyelids and ran down her face, streaking her face with watery veins. The class was entranced by her singing and some felt her pain.

I got a pocket, got a pocketful of sunshine.  
I got a love, and I know that it's all mine.  
Oh, oh, oh.  
Do what you want, but you're never gonna break me.  
Sticks and stones are never gonna shake me.  
Oh, oh, oh.

Take me away: A secret place.  
A sweet escape: Take me away.  
Take me away to better days.  
Take me away: A higher place.

I got a pocket, got a pocketful of sunshine.  
I got a love, and I know that it's all mine.  
Oh, oh, oh.  
Do what you want, but you're never gonna break me.  
Sticks and stones are never gonna shake me.  
Oh, oh, oh.

I got a pocket, got a pocketful of sunshine.  
I got a love, and I know that it's all mine.  
Oh, oh, oh.  
Wish that you could, but you ain't gonna own me.  
Do anything you can to control me.  
Oh, oh, oh.  


Take me away: A secret place.  
A sweet escape: Take me away.  
Take me away to better days.  
Take me away: A higher place.

There's a place that I go  
But nobody knows.  
Where the rivers flow  
And I call it home.  
And there's no more lies.  
In the darkness, there's light.  
And nobody cries.  
There's only butterflies.

Take me away: A secret place.  
A sweet escape: Take me away.  
Take me away to better days.  
Take me away: A higher place.

Take me away: A secret place.  
A sweet escape: Take me away.  
Take me away to better days.  
Take me away: A higher place.

Take me away: A secret place.  
To better days take me away.  
Take me away to better days.  
Take me away: A higher place.

The sun is on my side.  
Take me for a ride.  
I smile up to the sky.  
I know I'll be all right.

The sun is on my side.  
Take me for a ride.  
I smile up to the sky.  
I know I'll be all right.

When Sakura was done she opened her eyes to the class's awestruck expressions. The boys with hearts in their eyes and some of the girls were crying and rest were amazed to hear her have such an angelic voice. Everyone began clapping for her. Sakura, having all this unwanted attention on her looked down at the ground blushing. Some of the girls were envious of her singing talent and how she hung around their precious Sasuke-kun. (Disgusting .)

"Well done Sakura-chan! What a good performance." Kurenai said with her eyes sparkling with happiness that one of her students was an amazing singer, unlike some of the other girls that just sang to impress the Uchiha heir. "Are you ready to play your flute piece now?"

"Hai, Kurenai-sensei." Sakura replied with a glowing face, happy that the class enjoyed her singing.

Sakura got her flute ready and began to warm up with the scales and a few minor pieces. She once again walked to the front of the class, nervous again, but not as much as before. She raised the wind instrument to her mouth and began to blow. A soothing melody filled the silent room and washed over the class's ears. Sasuke's ears perked up hearing the same smooth melody he had hear her play this morning. He was intrigued on how she was so talented with the arts. After a couple more bars, Sakura was finished playing the piece and bowed towards the class. The class erupted in applauses and cheers for the small girl.

"Sakura-chan, I've decided that you will be doing both singing and playing the flute. You have a natural gift for both and I would like to help you expand on it, if you want me to." Kurenai said looking the girl in the eyes.

Sakura stared at Kurenai for a moment before closing her eyes pondering on what to do.

'**You should do it! You know how much nii-chan use to love you play. He always said to work on it, but you stopped after…he passed. You should take it up again and make him proud.' Inner Sakura chimed through her thoughts.**

"Okay, Kurenai-sensei. I will be happy and honoured if you helped me with my singing and flute." Sakura said bowing to the elder female.

"Sakura-chan, what did I say about bowing to me?" Kurenai said shaking her head at the girl.

Sakura immediately straightened up with an apologetic expression on her face.

"Okay you may go sit down with your friends. Everybody, the rest of the period is yours to do whatever you may wish. And girls, please do not bother Sasuke-san, if you do I will give you all detention. You may start on what you want." Their sensei said with a smile.

Sakura made her way back towards the group but she was stopped by Ami and her 'crew'.

"Listen up here, Forehead-girl. Remember Sasuke is ours and ours alone. So don't mess around with our chances with him. We will know if you do." Ami said with a dark expression on her face, making her look like the devil.

Sakura looked at Ami, and then walked around the group of girls, ignoring them and sat down with her friends.

"That bitch. She will feel my wrath. No one ever ignores me and walks away." Ami whispered to herself. "She will pay…dearly."

"Sakura that was AWESOME! I NEVER KNEW YOU COULD SING LIKE _THAT!_" Ino screeched.

Sakura looked taken aback by her friend's antics and smiled faintly, inwardly laughing at Ino's expression at the moment. Sasuke watched the scene unfold with Hinata, Ten-Ten and Gaara.

"You never asked…Ino-Pig." Sakura said winking before taking out her sketchbook.

"What did you say Forehead-girl?" Ino said, steam coming out of her ears.

"I'm just kidding Ino. Yes, I can sing. I stopped after Sai…" Sakura let the sentence drag out; knowing that both Gaara and Ino knew what she was going to say.

"Sorry Saku-chan." Ino apologized and gave her a hug.

Sakura returned the hug and smiled. "It's okay. I'm getting over it."

Sakura opened up her sketchbook and began to doodle, while thinking what to draw for the art project due tomorrow. As she was thinking, she began to draw a forest full of Sakura trees, with three kids sitting under one of them leaning on one another sharing a bento with instruments and papers scattered around them. Sasuke who was sitting beside Sakura looked at her sketching while she was thinking.

'Wow! She's a good artist. I wonder how she can draw without even thinking about it. She seems out of it since she mentions Sai.'

'**Hey…that looks like Ino, Sakura and some other guy when they were smaller.'**

'You're right! For once you're right.' Sasuke thought to his inner-self.

'**Hey…that's mean.' Inner Sasuke said quietly sniffling.**

'Hn. Stop being a cry baby.'

_Briinggg!_

The bell went and the students began to file out of the classroom like a swarm of ants out the door. The six of them made their way towards the cafeteria to meet up with their other friends.

"Konnichiwa everyone." Sakura greeted quietly.

The later decided to go outside and eat under the shady trees and talk for a bit. It started it started out a bit quiet, but then Naruto began to ramble on about his dreams of ramen taking over the world. Sakura giggled a bit about the thought of food taking over the world.

"Hey, Sakura-chan. Why don't you tell us a bit about yourself? Like your likes, dislikes, hobbies and stuff like that. So we can get to know each other better and we do the same so you can get to know us." Naruto suggested.

"Dobe. That might have been the smartest thing you have ever said in your whole entire life." Sasuke said smiling faintly.

"Urusai, teme. Why don't I start off first then? I'm Uzumaki Naruto…"

* * *

_**To Be Continued…**_

Thanks everyone for reading! Please review. And sorry for updating so late…ehe…writer's block sucks… .

Until next time!

X.x.SakuraUchiha.x.X


	8. Getting To Know Everyone

Never Forgotten

Chapter 8: Getting To Know Everyone

Thank you to Geanie-chan101, XxMiyakaxX, and Kurai Raiku-Kurai Kisaki for reviewing.

Thank you to all those who have put my story on story alert and favourites or have added me as a favourite author!

Constructive criticism or any ideas for the story is greatly appreciated!

**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or any of the characters.**

* * *

_.X. Recap .X._

The later decided to go outside and eat under the shady trees and talk for a bit. It started it started out a bit quiet, but then Naruto began to ramble on about his dreams of ramen taking over the world. Sakura giggled a bit about the thought of food taking over the world.

"Hey, Sakura-chan. Why don't you tell us a bit about yourself? Like your likes, dislikes, hobbies and stuff like that. So we can get to know each other better and we do the same so you can get to know us." Naruto suggested.

"Dobe. That might have been the smartest thing you have ever said in your whole entire life." Sasuke said smiling faintly.

"Urusai, teme. Why don't I start off first then? I'm Uzumaki Naruto…"

* * *

"I'm Uzumaki Naruto and my mom's name is Uzumaki Kushina and my dad is Namikaze Minato. He's basically the mayor or the president of Konoha and my mom is fashion designer for women's clothing. I like – no, I mean I LOVE ramen…a lot! I eat it for breakfast, lunch and dinner. And I want to prove myself to everyone that I can become the pres. Of this town just like my father! Believe it! And Hinata-chan is my girlfriend." Naruto said in one big breath.

Sakura sweat dropped at his long rant and smiled when he was done.

'**This boy, he is… really weird…' Inner Sakura said with a disgusted face.**

Sakura laughed at her inners face and her smile got wider.

"Okay! Me next! I'm Yamanaka, Ino. My family owns a big chain of flower arranging stores around the world and I love to shop and hanging out with my friends. And Forehead girl's my best friend!" Ino said giggling at the last part.

Sakura had a twitching smile plastered on her face and her forehead had a vein throbbing violently. She slowly counted to 10 and she began to calm down.

"Okay, who's next?" Ino asked laughing at Sakura's expression. "How about you Ten-Ten?"

"Alrighty! Well my name is Yoshida Ten-Ten. My family owns Kunai Weaponry, a chain of stores that reside all across the world. And I love playing around with sharp and pointy objects like pencils, or knives – insert giggle – and Neji's my boyfriend. Oh yeah…and I'm kind of a tomboy and I hate dresses or anything frilly. Come near me with those and I'll hurt you." Ten-Ten said laughing a bit.

Sakura's eyes widen at the last part.

'What an odd girl…and kind of scary…remind me never to get on her bad side…'

'**You're telling me…she likes pointy and SHARP things…things that can poke someone's eyes out…'**

'No wonder she was poking Shikamaru with a pencil today…'

"Okay…Hinata-chaaaannn! You're next!"

"Hai. I'm Hyuuga Hinata, heiress to the Byakugan Corporation that manufactures designer clothing and I have a younger sister Hanabi and Neji is my cousin. Naruto-kun is my boyfriend, and I use to stutter around people but now I don't. Hmm…I also like the colour lavender. I guess it's your turn Neji-nii-chan."

The said boy looked bored and sighed. "Okay, Hinata-sama. I'm Hyuuga Neji, and Hinata's cousin. I like sports, and Ten-chan. And I'm one of the top students in our class next to Uchiha and I don't like to talk a lot. Your turn Shikamaru."

"This is so troublesome. I'm Nara Shikamaru. My family works as deer raisers and we also work alongside with the police force in Konoha. I am a lazy person and I like to cloud watch when the weathers nice. Ino's my troublesome girlfriend – HEY‼ You're gonna regret saying that about me! – And I'm top of our class because I have a troublesome IQ of 200. Man…why do I even bother with these things? – Sigh – Your turn I guess Sasuke."

'**Wow. He really likes the word troublesome doesn't he? I wonder if that's all he can say. I seriously think whoever did his IQ test mixed his with someone else's.'**

'Shush! I want to know something about everyone. So keep your mouth shut!'

"Hn. Uchiha Sasuke. Family owns Konoha Police Force and Uchiha Industries for clothing. One of top students in our class. Like martial arts. Mother's name is Mikoto and father's Fugaku. Your turn Sakura."

Sakura had a huge sweat drop at Sasuke's introduction…if you even call that one. "Okay…My name's Haruno Sakura and my family is deceased. Tsunade and Shizune are now my family. I like the arts and I have a weak body, but I want to change that so I can be strong like everyone around me. I was top of my class from my other school and I was horrible at sports. Um…yeah…and that's it I guess…OH! Temari and Kankuro and Gaara are my siblings whom I met when kaa-san adopted me." She said quietly.

After the introductions, everyone began to chat amongst each other and taking in the new information they had learned about each other. Sakura was sitting quietly under the tree a 

few feet from the rest of the group watching them joke around with each other while humming quietly to herself. She was thinking about how blessed she was to have such good friends that are there for her. She felt close to them already and they just met the day before. The rose-hair coloured girl began to quietly ponder what to do for her art project that was due tomorrow.

'**Just go with the flow and draw what just comes to your mind. Your best pieces are always drawn that way. I think that's awesome since I helped with some of them! To lose yourself in something you enjoy so much… - sigh – makes me feel so happy and bubbly.'**

Sakura mentally sighed at her inner's mindless chatter about non-important things in life. All of her works of art were about her past…the constant reminder of her past will never let her fully heal emotionally or mentally. Her sweet and bold character was wrongly ripped from her being and affected everyone who had known _that_ Sakura. The self-confidence and voice she once held, the one thing that could brighten anyone's day was stripped from the young girl and caused her to become isolated from everyone. Her once happy thoughts slowly turned to dark ones, and she became oblivious to her surroundings and the confused stares of her friends they directed at her when they felt a saddened and greatly depressed aura from Sakura's direction. Her thoughts suddenly went into a series of flashbacks.

--x-- Flashbacks --x--

Dark metallic red puddles

--Flash!--

Painful agonizing screams rang through the cold night

--Flash!--

Maniacal cackling

--Flash!--

Ruby coloured eyes with black blades piercing her own soft emerald eyes with malice and dark intent

--Flash!--

A shiny silver dagger gleaming in the moonlight at a small shadowed figure a few feet away

--Flash!--

Lots of pain through her whole being

--x-- End of Flashbacks --x--

Sakura visibly began to tremble from head to toe from the intensity of the memories that haunt her every day. Everyone who was watching go through this unexpected change in her demeanour was suddenly alarmed at her new actions and they grew concerned at their new friend and tried to grasp the sudden tense and fearful atmosphere. Ino began to approach the small girl with extreme caution knowing one wrong move can cause an even more disastrous situation. Sakura was still in her trance state, when a hand gently placed itself on her shoulder, and Sakura was immediately shaken out of her trance. Her silver-green eyes traced the owner's hand back to their face, Ino's. Ino's eyes were filled with concern, fear and confusion, but most of all care for her best friend. The blossom head's composure snapped when she saw a friendly and recognizable face, and launched her form at Ino, sobbing uncontrollably into the blonde's shoulder. Sakura's voice was muffled by her school uniform, but she could still make out some of the incoherent mumbling streaming from the hysterical girl's mouth.

"…Sai… - sniff - …nii-chan,…I'm sorry… - sniff –there's so much blood… - those eyes…eyes with black blades – sniff – swirling around…the way he looked at me… - sniff – I'm sorry nii-chan…I couldn't stop them…- sniff – sorry I couldn't stop them from touching me…I'm sorry…"

Ino's sapphire eyes widened as she pieced the sentences together, now fully aware of made her surrogate sister this upset. Ino bowed her head to hide her face from everyone and began to cry thinking of her surrogate brother, Sai. She was furious at herself because she didn't know about his death until yesterday and couldn't be there for Sakura when she needed her the most. She spun around showing everyone her red puffy eyes filled with fresh tears running down her pale face and locked her eyes with the sand siblings. A secret message was silently passed through all of their eyes, arguing with each other but finally reached a conclusion. The four of them nodded to each other and Kankuro stiffly stood up and ran to get Tsunade and Shizune. Shikamaru watched as this scene unfold and when he saw his girlfriend break down he was frightened. Of all the years he had known Ino, he has never seen her cry; she didn't even shed a tear when she broke her leg chasing him down for making fun of her. Shikamaru was honest to God scared out of his mind. He watched as Ino cried her eyes out as she stroke Sakura's pink mane with a motherly affection.

Gaara and Temari looked a bit unnerved at their crying sister with a sadden expression etched on their face. They knew Sakura would never cry when she's with a group of friends. She never wants to burden anyone with her problems and her past and would always cry when she was alone. But the only reason she would cry in public was if something had triggered _that_ memory. The memory that constantly haunted her very soul and weighed down her heart everyday with the pain and guilt she feels. The siblings knew that Sakura blames herself for her brother's death and punishes herself everyday by isolating herself from everyone and mentally belittling herself for being happy when Sai wasn't.

The others who were watching their new friend's predicament had seen her throw herself at Ino and clutched onto her like she was going away forever. Sasuke being close enough to hear Sakura's terrified rambling hear something about red eyes and had jumped to the conclusion that Sakura knows his bastard brother, tried to convince himself that it was someone else with red eyes. It could be Kurenai-sensei for all he cared. He mentally 

prayed that it wasn't his '_dear'_ brother, Uchiha Itachi, the prodigy and traitor to his family's name. A twig snapping caused everyone to whip their heads to the sound's location just to see dark figured emerging from the shadows of the school. Kankuro had returned with a pale and worried mother and elder sister both wringing their hands in despair. They saw the two girls crouching forms and began to panic. They both appeared by the girl's sides and began to coax the two muttering endearments of comforts in their ears trying to sooth them, but failed miserably. Gaara and Shikamaru decided to take action and went over to their respected female and scooped them up and tried bringing them to the infirmary. But the both of them tried to escape the male's grips.

—x—Ino's Struggle —x—

Shikamaru tried to calm his girlfriend down, fearing for her mental well-being. He was scared that he was going to drop the girl so he settled down on the ground settling her in his lap, stroking her waist length hair lovingly whispering words of comfort in her ear and occasionally placing kisses on her forehead. Ino began to slowly calm down and buried her face into his chest placing her ear over his heart listening to the soothing beat of his heart and began to mumble words that he couldn't hear, but one word caught his attention, 'Sai-kun'. His eyes glinted dangerously as he heard the affectionate honorific on another guy's name, but decided that it was better to bring it up at a later time. As Ino's sobs died down she shifted her head to face everyone who stared back at her with concerned eyes. She shook her head and reburied her face into Shikamaru's chest and fell asleep soon afterwards. Her boyfriend looked down at her with a relieved look on his face knowing that she was going to be okay.

—x—Sakura's Struggle —x—

Sakura began to struggle against the gentle yet firm grip on her, thinking it was a predator. Gaara tried to calm his sister but was having little success. Sakura's arms began to flail about trying to free herself from her so-thought attacker catching Gaara's face once or twice leaving red scratches on his pale cheek. Gaara just stood still with her still in his arms murmuring words of comfort in her ears. She began to calm down when she recognized his soothing tenor voice and ceased her movements. She looked up at him with red-rimmed eyes, stray tears flowing down her face, her eyes filled with unknown grief and threw her arms around his neck burying her face into chest and began to sob uncontrollably into his school uniform. He buried his face into her long hair, whispering to her, reinsuring her that no one would ever hurt her or take her away ever again. Her sobs began to die to down to minimal sniffs and hiccups here and there until she fell into a pitiful sleep, where nightmares plague her soul. She was still trembling and occasionally and repeatedly whispering sorry to a person. Gaara slowly made his way into the school with a sleeping Sakura in his pale arms, clutching at his uniform. Tsunade followed with Shizune trailing behind her with a pale and sadden expression adorned on her face. Shikamaru slowly stood up from his spot on the ground and followed the two doctors into the building with everyone watching them go with a tense atmosphere surrounding them. Naruto was the first to snap out of this and tried to make something out of this sudden problem.

_**

* * *

**_

To Be Continued :) Please Review! X.x.SakuraUchiha.x.X


	9. Help Her forget her problems

* * *

Never Forgotten

Chapter 9: Help Her Forget Her Problems, Even For a Little While

Thank you to xXEmoNYRicanAnimeChicXx, The Hiccanator!, Kurai Raiku-Kurai Kisaki, cherrysaki-chan, XxMiyakaxX, ToraHimeSama, xRosewithThornsx, SasuSaku13636, x.X.SANOlover.X.x, Geanie-chan101, X.x.Panda-chan.x.X, gianna loves SasuSaku, and DarkxBlossom for reviewing!

And thanks to everyone who has put me on story alert or favourites!

Constructive criticism is greatly appreciated!

_**This chapter is dedicated to **__**DarkxBlossom**__** who helped me with this chapter! 3**_

**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or any of the characters!**

_

* * *

_

.X. Recap .X.

Her sobs began to die to down to minimal sniffs and hiccups here and there until she fell into a pitiful sleep, where nightmares plague her soul. She was still trembling and occasionally and repeatedly whispering sorry to a person. Gaara slowly made his way into the school with a sleeping Sakura in his pale arms, clutching at his uniform. Tsunade followed with Shizune trailing behind her with a pale and sadden expression adorned on her face. Shikamaru slowly stood up from his spot on the ground and followed the two doctors into the building with everyone watching them go with a tense atmosphere surrounding them. Naruto was the first to snap out of this and tried to make something out of this sudden problem.

* * *

"What the hell just happen?" Naruto said as he jumped up from the ground, facing the direction that the others just left in with a worried look on his face.

Everyone had mixed emotions on how to react about this, they have known Ino for a long time, since academy days, and have never seen her react like this except once. She was the usual blonde loud preppy girl with a bubbly aura surrounding her; this was why she was always so popular with everyone, well maybe except for some of the girls. Something major must have happened to make her react like this and they felt like they were left in the shadows by their best friend, especially Ten-Ten and Hinata. Kankuro and Temari looked pained knowing the cause of the girls' break down.

"Excuse us. We have to go to class." Temari and Kankuro stood up and walked away eyeing the rest of the group with a apologetic expression.

Hinata looked up with a frown on her face and stood up abruptly dragging Ten-Ten with her.

"Ouch! Hinata-chan, not so hard." Ten-Ten whined while rubbing her arm a bit.

"Sumimasen, Ten-Ten." Hinata said distractedly. She turned to the other two boys who just sat there with a dazed look on their faces. "Neji-nii-san, Sasuke, Naruto-kun, Ten-Ten and I are going to head to the infirmary to check on Ino-chan and Sakura-chan. And I want you three to think of something to make them both feel better. Don't think of something that you three would like but rather what _they_ would like. And no Naruto, not ramen." Hinata said with some authority in her voice, her expression was one of a she-devil. She grabbed the other girl's arm and dragged her away to the infirmary with a determined look on her face, Ten-Ten looked over her shoulder pleading at Neji with her eyes to help her but her just gave her a 'I'm sorry I can't help you' look and gave her a small smile before mouthing 'good luck' to her.

--x-- The Infirmary --x--

The six of them arrived at the infirmary in a thick, heavy atmosphere. Gaara settled Sakura down on the sterile bed and draped the blanket over her skinny body, while Shikamaru settled in the bed himself with Ino in his lap and pulled the blanket over both of their bodies. The two adults in the room looked so pale and stressed out and it was only the second day of school. Shikamaru was still a bit jealous hearing Ino saying another boy's name with an intimate honorific.

"Tsunade-sama, if I may, can I ask you who Sai-san is? Ino was mumbling his name when she was falling asleep."

The other 3 occupants looked at each other hesitantly before the principle said something.

"Sai was Sakura's older brother and Ino's childhood friend, nothing more so you needn't worry about it." Tsunade said evasively, turning to the window.

Shikamaru could tell that he wouldn't get any more answers out of any of them; he wasn't a genius for nothing, so he left it at that. He turned to the sleeping girl in his lap and stroked her hair, looking a bit worried. Gaara and Shizune tended to Sakura as she slept. She had begun to have a nightmare. Her face was scrunched up in inner turmoil, and her fists were clenched up into fists around her blanket and she began sweating profusely. Shizune went to the bathroom and got a towel soaked in cold water and laid it on her imouto's head. She relaxed a little bit, but not much. The door slid open revealing a worried heiress and weapons mistress.

"Excuse us for intruding." Hinata said as she bowed towards all the occupants of the room. "Ten-Ten and I are here to see if Sakura-chan and Ino-chan are feeling a bit better."

Ten-Ten was still rubbing her red arm. 'Damn! I never knew Hinata had such a strong grip!'

Everyone in the room looked at each other.

"They are still sleeping Hinata. We won't know until they both wake up." Shikamaru mumbled from the bed he was on.

"Oh. Okay. We'll go to art to tell Anko-sensei that –"

"Someone turn off the lights…it's so bright." A female voice mumbled with a hoarse voice.

Ten-Ten hurried to turn off the lights before a cranky blonde turns ultra cranky and kills them all with her shrieking.

"Water please." Ino whispered as she sat upright. "Ack. Why do I feel like I've been run over by a truck 100 times over?"

Hinata went over to the fridge and took out a bottle of water and handed it over to the drowsy girl.

"Thanks Hina-chan." Ino said in between gulps of the cool liquid. Once she was done with the bottle of water she began to examine her surroundings.

'White walls, white bed, white ugly curtains, smelly medicine, Sakura-chan out cold on a nasty old bed, Shikamaru behi—'

"Oh my GOD! Sakura-chan!" Ino jumped out of Shikamaru's arms and rushed to where Sakura laid, with a painful expression on her face.

"Saku-chan?" Ino whispered as she stood there beside her best friend's side with a worried look on her face and she leaned over and began to gently shake Sakura awake. "Sakura-chan, wake up. We still have classes to attend. Sakura, wake up! Forehead-girl, wake up before I drag you to art." She said with a mischievous tone.

Everyone in the room looked at Ino with a panic expression. "Troublesome girl. What are you doing?" Shikamaru said panic laced in his voice as he looked at Gaara's killer expression. "You're gonna hurt her."

"Urusai, Shikamaru! I know what I'm doing. Forehead-baka! Wake up!"

Sakura began to stir from her sleep. Her nightmare was shattered into a thousand pieces when she heard Ino yelling her name and shaking her. Ino stop with her assault and backed away with a grin on her face. Her eyes opened revealing emerald eyes. Sakura sat up, and looked at everyone in the room with a confused frown on her face.

"Why am I here?" She asked everyone. She turned to Ino with an evil look on her face and smacked the blonde girl on the head. "Piggy-chan! You're too loud! Do you want the whole entire school to hear your ugly voice?" Sakura said grinning uncontrollably when she saw steam coming out of Ino's ears.

"Urusai forehead-baka!" The blonde yelled.

Everyone in the room was relieved that everything was back to normal, at least for the time being. Hinata and Ten-Ten rushed over to Sakura's bed and hugged her with all their might. Ino joined in as well in their group hug laughing insanely at the girl's demise. Soon everyone in the room began laughing, well Tsunade and Shizune were, but Gaara and Shikamaru were just chuckling quietly.

"KYAAA! Itai! Itai! Let me go! Let me go! Itai! Itai! Gaara! Help ME! Hey! Kaa-san, nee-chan, it's not funny! Stop laughing at me! Itai!" Sakura whined pathetically.

The three of them eventually let the poor girl go and backed away quickly fearing for their own safety. Everyone soon stop laughing at the flustered girl.

"_Hinata…Ten-Ten…Ino…_prepare to die!" Sakura screeched and jumped out of the bed only to fall flat on her butt. The blanket flopped down on top of her head shielding her from everyone else. Everyone began to stare at the white mass on the floor with pink faces, trying to hold in their laughter at Sakura's clumsiness. They saw the covers begin to shake uncontrollably and began to worry that the girl underneath was injured in some way. Gaara approached the trembling girl only to be jumped on as Sakura leapt up from the ground effectively pinning him on his stomach with her sitting on his back laughing her head off. Gaara's expression was priceless; his eyes were wide with shock and his mouth was hung opened.

"Ack! Sakura! Get off of me! Off! Off!" Everyone in the room began to laugh at Gaara's expense.

"Sorry nii-chan. Not my fault that you didn't help me earlier. This is your punishment." Sakura began to raise her arms and wiggle her finger's threateningly. Gaara began to squirm underneath Sakura trying to get away…his efforts were in vein. Sakura lowered her arms to his sides and began to tickle Gaara with an evil intent.

"Mwahahahaha." The rose head chuckled evilly.

"Pfft. Hahahaha. Stop! Sak-saku-SAKURA! Yamete!" Gaara began to twist and turn to get away from his sister's clutches.

Everyone in the room began to laugh once again.

"To think I'm actually seeing Gaara getting tortured by Sakura. Usually he would just run away. It's a miracle!" Tsunade cried, tears of laughter falling from her eyes.

Shikamaru, Hinata, Ten-Ten, Shizune and Ino were all taking in the scene of Gaara being overpowered by a pink hair girl. 'Poor Gaara.' They all thought with some pity.

"Sakura! Pfft. Let me go! Sakura! SAKURAAAAAAAAAAA!"

Hinata whipped out her cell phone knowing that they boys would have heard his scream and took a picture of the two siblings while texting a message to her boyfriend. 'Excellent blackmail material!' She thought to herself.

--x-- With the guys --x--

"Damn, Naruto. Your girlfriend is scary sometimes." Sasuke said with a disturbed look on his face. There wasn't an answer. "Naruto?"

He turned to see the blonde in the corner chibi-style crying at his girlfriend's cruelty. A sweat-drop formed on the back of his head. "Dobe-no-baka. Scared of his girlfriend." Sasuke muttered under his breath. He turned to see Neji with his eyes closed muttering something.

"Kami-sama. Please bring back Ten-Ten in one piece or at least spare her from Hinata-sama's evil clutches."

Sasuke's sweat-drop grew even bigger as he watched Neji pray for his girlfriend's safety from his cousin's clutches. "Oi, you two. If you don't want to die, then I suggest you help think of stuff that the girl's would like to do."

Naruto looked up hearing his best friend relay his girlfriend's request.

"You mean like a date?" Naruto asked with question marks blinking overtop his head.

"That would be something the girls would like. But instead of calling it a date maybe a group thing instead. Since Uchiha here and Sakura-chan are the only people who are single. I don't blame Sakura-chan, but I laugh at Uchiha." Neji said with a smirk on his face.

"Urusai, Hyuuga. I don't want a girlfriend. They cling too much and they want to rape me." Sasuke replied with shudder.

Naruto and Neji looked a bit sympathetic for the raven haired boy.

"Okay so where should we go then? Amusement parks? Aquarium? Movies? Beach?" Naruto said listing possibilities with his finger.

"Maybe the amusement park. We haven't been there in a long time. It'll be like old times again, right?"

"Good idea."

The three boys just sat there thinking of how to tell the girls about this.

"We should tell Hinata-chan first so she could tell the girls about the idea. And Hinata-chan won't kill me!" Naruto said relieved that his girlfriend won't maul him to death.

A scream resonated through the school yard. "…SAKURAAAAAAAAAAA!"

The boys sat up straight, shivers ran up and down their spines.

"That sounded like Gaara, I think. But he doesn't seem like the guy to just scream." Naruto said with a scared voice.

Sasuke and Neji just nodded.

"I'll call Hinata chan to as what's going on."

**Buzz!**

"Hey! I just got a text from her. 'Guys. Don't worry about the scream. It was just Gaara-san. – Photo insert of Gaara being attacked by Sakura who was sitting on his back with a glint in her eyes. –'" Naruto showed the other two the picture as he laughed his head off. The others had an amused smile on their faces when they saw the picture. Naruto texted back to Hinata telling her about the plans. "Hina-chan. We decided to go to the amusement park for the weekend. Tell the girls and Shikamaru. Invite Gaara if you want." He clicked 'send'.

**Briinggg!** The school bell went signalling the end of lunch. The boys parted ways to get to their next class.

--x-- The Infirmary --x--

**Buzz!**

Hinata's cell phone went off alerting her of a reply. "Hina-chan. We decided to go to the amusement park for the weekend. Tell the girls and Shikamaru. Invite Gaara if you want."

"Ano…minna. The boys just sent me a message telling me that they would like to take us to the amusement park this weekend. If you want Gaara, you and your siblings may also come."

Everyone in the room seemed to freeze as Hinata explained the new plans.

"Alright! The amusement park! I haven't been to one since forever! And I'm dragging you forehead-baka, whether you want to or not. It seems like fun! If that is okay with you Tsunade-sama."

"Hai, hai. Sakura needs to get out of the house more. She's always studying."

"Kaa-san!"

"Gomen, Hinata. But my siblings and I have work so we cannot come."

"That is alright Gaara. Maybe next time right?"

"Maybe."

**Briinggg!**

"Alright! Time for art!" All the girls made their way towards Anko's art classroom while Gaara and Shikamaru headed to theirs.

"Everything seems to be alright ne, Tsunade-sama." Shizune asked when they were alone.

Tsunade turned towards Shizune with a tired look in her eyes. "Hai, everything is going fine. Hopefully they can help Sakura become who she once was." She replied softly.

The four girls ran to their class from the infirmary.

"Man. Why is the infirmary on the opposite side of the school from art class?!" Ino complained as they ran down the deserted hallway.

"Less whining, more running. Anko-sensei will have a fit if we're this late." Hinata said.

"Safe!" Ten-Ten yelled as they arrived at the door.

The four girls rushed in and plopped down in their seat, completely exhausted from their run. Luckily their teacher wasn't there yet. The boys were amused to see their female friends completely flushed from the infirmary.

"It was fate that you guys were late and you had to face your punishment." Neji said while smirking at the girls.

"Shut up Neji! It wasn't our fault." Ino yelled.

The door slid open indicating that their teacher had arrived. Everyone quickly returned to their seats ready for their lesson.

"Today, you guys will be working on your project that is due tomorrow." The class groaned. "Judging by the complaints I hear, I guess most of you has forgotten about the project. Well too bad. It's not my fault you guys are so unorganized. I wonder how you guys will survive once you graduate if you can't even remember and simple little project and it is worth 15 percent of your mark. You guys are hopeless." Anko sneered. "Get to work you morons and keep the noise to a minimum."

The class got to work immediately knowing that their project is due tomorrow.

"I totally forgot about the project! Damn!" Naruto complained.

Sakura stared at her canvas with a blank expression.

'What the hell am I supposed to draw? I can't even think of anything!' She thought to herself as she mindlessly doodle on her canvas with water coloured paint.

'**Maybe you should draw all your friends and stuff.'**

'Maybe. I don't know. This morning you said something about the good and the bad times. Maybe I should do that.'

As Sakura was thinking about what to draw, her eyes glazed over turning her eyes lighter shade, almost like a pale green. Her hand moved unconsciously as she continued to paint on her canvas. Meanwhile, the others were already painting their projects. The period dragged by for most of the students, but it flew by for Sakura.

**Briinggg!** The bell had rung, signalling the end of art class. Everyone packed up their belongings and made their way to the door. Sakura was still debating with herself on what to draw for the project that she didn't hear the bell ring; her hands were still dancing over the painting. Ino, Naruto and Sasuke walked over to the dazed girl to bring her to biology. But as they arrived at her small easel they were shocked to see what she had painted. It was a picture of Ino, Sakura and another young boy when they were still kids. They were all sitting under a cherry blossom tree with instruments at hand; smiles on their faces as they sat there. The pink petals were scattered around them. The picture was one that showed happiness and joy, but the disturbing part about the picture was the sky was blood red with a pale moon and a huge crimson eye with black designs in the middle of the moon. Sasuke's tempered flared when he saw his brother's eye in her drawing, Ino was near tears seeing one of her most precious memories drawn and Naruto was staring at the red sky. Ino shook Sakura's shoulders and the small girl snapped out of her trance.

"What is it Ino? Is class over already?" Sakura asked as she turned to look at the three, her eyes returned to its normal colour.

"Yes." The blonde whispered. "Hurry and pack up. We're gonna be late for bio."

Sakura turned back to her picture and gasped, the blood red eye stood out and was staring back at her face. She backed away from the picture and into Sasuke's legs.

"What are you maggots still doing here!?" Anko asked as she saw the four them gathered around Sakura's easel. She walked over to them and was surprised to see such a beautifully drawn picture of a memory but she recognized the eye. "Haruno. Is it okay if you handed this in as your project? You wouldn't have to worry about it for tonight's homework."

Sakura just nodded. The teacher took it away and slid it into a rack where the painting could dry.

'I need to show this to Tsunade-sama.' "Here. I'll write you four a late slip for Asuma's class."

Sakura quickly packed up her belongings and stood up quickly and took the slip and began to walk out the door with the other three behind her in silence. Ino caught up to Sakura and slipped an arm around the distraught girl's shoulders leaving the boys behind them. Sasuke was still fuming about the eye that she had drawn.

'No one knows about the Uchiha Sharingan, well other than the dobe. So how could she have drawn _Itachi's_?' He hissed to himself venomously.

"Oi. Teme. Wasn't that Itachi's eye?" Naruto whispered to the brooding boy.

"Hn."

The next two periods went by quickly and the group headed towards gym.

'Prepare Haruno Sakura for your worst nightmare.' A certain person thought to themselves.

_**To be continued.**_

* * *

Please review!

X.x.Kuro-Neko-Chan.x.X


	10. Past Revealed

Never Forgotten

Chapter 10: Past Revealed

Thank you to ToraHimeSama, DarkxBlossom, Kurai Raiku-Kurai Kisaki, gianna loves SasuSaku, x.X.SANOlover.X.x, Geanie-chan101, and X.x.Ronald.Weasley.x.X for reviewing!

And thank you very much those who have put me on story alert or 'favourited' me story!

_Aha. This is the longest chapter I have written yet. I just had so many ideas for this. This may be a onetime thing so don't get your hopes up faithful readers! Sorry!_

**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or any of the characters in any way!**

_

* * *

_

.X. Recap .X.

'No one knows about the Uchiha Sharingan, well other than the dobe. So how could she have drawn _Itachi's_?' He hissed to himself venomously.

"Oi. Teme. Wasn't that Itachi's eye?" Naruto whispered to the brooding boy.

"Hn."

The next two periods went by quickly and the group headed towards gym.

'Prepare Haruno Sakura for your worst nightmare.' A certain person thought to themselves.

* * *

The two girls were silently talking as the boys were trailing behind them engulf in their own conversation.

"Are you alright Sakura?" Ino asked concerned shown on her face.

Sakura just looked dazed as she walked beside Ino. Ino became really worried when her friend didn't respond to her questions. So she stopped and grabbed Sakura by her shoulders and shook her furiously. Sakura looked a little shaken up but still didn't respond to the vicious blonde roughly shaking her back and forth.

"Ino. You're going to hurt her." Naruto said in a small voice.

"I know. But once she's like this, it's hard to get her out of it. Something bad might happen to her if she doesn't snap out of it." The blonde replied sorrow showing in her eyes.

"Do you know why she's like this Ino?" Naruto asked.

"You know that little boy in the picture with us? That was her older brother, Sai. He was murdered by a gang right in front of her eyes. The actual picture itself was a real memory of the three of us. We were in a park with our instruments a day before school started and we were just fooling around and stuff you know? That was one of the best times we had together."

The two boys were shocked at the news of the small girl's older brother.

'No wonder she's so withdrawn.' They both thought.

They heard footsteps. The three of them turned to see Sakura making her way towards the gym still in her trance of shock. They began to walk again with Sakura in front and the three of them in the back with different looks on their faces. As the four of them walked towards the gym they heard whispers of despair.

"Those were _his_ eyes. _They_ will always haunt me wherever I go. They _will always_ remind me of the past. _They_ want to break me."

The three of them looked bewildered at the sudden voice. But no one was in the hallway but them. Their eyes travelled to the rosette. Her pale lips were moving and emitting the hushed words like a mantra, over and over again, increasing in volume.

"Those were _his_ eyes. _They_ will always haunt me wherever I go. **They **_**will always**_** remind me of the past. **_**They**_** want to break me."**

Ino began to pale as she realized that the eye in her drawing was the one who had ruined her best friend's life and rushed forward towards the girl and tried to hug her. But she was pushed away gently.

"Sakura. Please stop with this. You're only going to hurt yourself and everyone around you if you keep going on like this. I know it is difficult to on like this, but it's the only way. Everyone you've known will always be there to help you get through this. You have to learn to let go of the past and move forward. And you have to learn to forget about _HIM_. Sakura look at me. Don't you see I really want to help you with this? Don't you see that you have to talk about it to forget about it? Look at me Sakura!"

Sakura snapped out of her daze as she listened to the words that Ino was saying to her. With each sentence she heard, she got angrier and confused.

'How would she know about what I went through? She wasn't the one who got something taken away from her.'

'**She's just trying to help you get over this.'**

'I don't want her help! If I talk to anyone about this they'll only pity me and not help me.'

'**But if you don't talk about this and keep it bottled up inside, you'll go insane!'**

'Perhaps…but it's better than reliving it. Isn't that right?'

'**Wrong! You have friends that want to help you. But you're just being selfish and making everyone and you suffer from this. That was the past and it will always remain the past.'**

'Even if it is the past, it'll still haunt me forever. I will always see _it_ in my dreams.'

'**Yes. It will still affect you in the future. But do you want this bottled up inside for the rest of your life? Living with the guilt of turning down and disappointing those who want to help you get through this? Do you not think that they too will **

**be hurt by this stupid and pathetic decision you have made? What do you think your brother would have thought of this? You are a coward!'**

'SHUT UP! I don't want to hear this from you! I just want to live my life the way it is!'

'**Fine. I'll leave you alone for now. But remember this. You have friends for a reason. They are a pillar of support and that will never change.'**

The other three watched as Sakura's expression changed drastically. She seemed to be have an argument with herself; debating if she really wants the help or not.

"Sakura look at me! Don't you see I want to help you!?" Ino said with a desperate tone. "Don't you see how much I want to see you smile again? How can you be so selfish and act like the coward? What happened to the sweet outgoing Sakura that I used to know? The one who would always look on the bright side of things? The one who would said that they would be there for me when something goes wrong? The one who said that they would tell me if something was wrong? What happened to her?"

Sakura turned around with her long hair covering the shadows of her eyes, hiding the tears that were in her eyes.

"Shut up. SHUT UP! YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT I HAVE BEEN THROUGH. EVEN IF I WERE TO TELL YOU, ALL YOU WOULD DO IS PITY ME! I DON'T WANT PITY! I WANT TO BE LEFT ALONE WHERE I COULD THINK BY MYSELF AND TRY AND FORGET ABOUT EVERYTHING. I WANT TO FORGET HOW THAT BASTARD HURT ME AND KILLED SAI. I WANT TO SEE HIM DIE A PAINFUL DEATH AND FEEL HOW I FELT WHEN SAI DIED. HE WAS THE ONLY ONE LEFT FROM MY FAMILY. MY PARENTS WERE MURDERED INO! MY BROTHER WAS KILLED IN FRONT OF ME. I SAW IT WITH MY VERY OWN EYES! AND I! I WAS FREAKING RAPED AT THE AGE OF 4 INO! BY SOME FUCKING BASTARD WHO HAD _THOSE_ EYES! THOSE EYES THAT HAUNT ME WHEREEVER I GO!" Sakura shrieked at the top of her lungs tears streaming from her eyes. "NOW TELL ME. CAN YOU UNDERSTAND HOW I FEEL? CAN YOU HELP ME GET THROUGH THIS, WHEN YOU HAVE NO IDEA HOW I FEEL?"

Ino had turned even paler as she heard Sakura scream out her past at her. It was one thing to hear it from the Tsunade but to hear it from her best friend's own mouth that had hurt her even more. Naruto and Sasuke were furious when they heard that someone with the Sharingan had hurt Sakura. Sasuke rushed forward and appeared behind Sakura and hit a pressure point behind her neck, efficiently knocking her out. He caught her in his arms and held her gently, feeling guilty that it was his own brother's fault. His kin had caused her so much pain and misery. He gently wiped away the left over tears with his hand. Ino's legs became wobbly and she began to sway and she fell to her knees with a soft thud. Naruto rushed forward to help her.

"Ino-chan. Are you okay?" Naruto asked concerned for the blonde.

"I'm okay. I'm not sure about Sakura though…"

Naruto hulled Ino up and draped her arm over his shoulder and put an arm around her waist and began walking to Sasuke who had Sakura on his back.

"Let's just go. We are in no condition to go to gym." Sasuke said in a controlled voice. "I'll drive us to my house."

The two blondes just nodded and followed the Uchiha outside to his car. Naruto put Ino in the back seat as she nodded her thanks and Sasuke put Sakura beside Ino. The drove off in silence, scared of what to say. They were unaware of a shadow hiding behind the corner, listening to everything that had happened.

"Ino…is what Sakura said true?" Sasuke said in a soft voice, careful not to wake the sleeping girl.

"Yeah…it's true. When she wakes up I'll tell you guys about it." Ino said, as she stroked the pinkette's hair gently.

The three of them sat in silence thinking about today's events and what Sakura had yelled out to them. Her past, the same thing that has been haunting her for the last 9 years of her life has been revealed by accident. All three of them had mixed feelings about what has happened, but none of them pitied the poor girl. They felt like the world had been unfair to her and has taken away her childhood by putting her through any girl's nightmare. They feel like they had to do something to help her get past this horrific event. But they couldn't do it, if they didn't know the whole truth. They had to hear it come straight out of her mouth. As Sasuke pulled into the driveway the front gates opened to reveal a huge mansion owned by the Uchiha family. He parked the car and was greeted by a butler.

"Why, Young Master. You're home earlier than usual. Is something the matter Young Master?" Wei asked.

"Wei, can you please get a guest room prepared and set up some chairs and some tea and ramen for the dobe?" Sasuke said with an exhausted voice.

"Of course, Young Master. I will do that right away." The butler said, he bowed and walked away preparing what he was asked to do.

Sasuke went to the side where Sakura was on and pulled her into his arms gently, careful not to jostle the young girl. The other two were already halfway up the steps with Naruto's arm holding Ino up. They walked into the room that Wei had prepared and Sasuke set Sakura down and covered her up with the comforter before turning to the other two and gestured them to sit down and have some tea. The atmosphere around them was a dark one, Naruto didn't even touch the ramen, Sasuke and Ino just drank the tea with an unreadable expression. Ino suddenly jumped when she felt her phone vibrate in the skirt's pocket.

"Hello? Yamanaka Ino speaking."

"_Ino? This is Temari. Where is Sakura? We can't find her and peoples were saying that you, Naruto, Sasuke and Sakura never arrived in gym. Gaara was ready to kill someone. Where are you guys?"_

"Oh. Hey Temari. We're over at Sasuke's house. Sakura wasn't feeling well and had a _mental breakdown_ so we decided to head over to his house. She's sleeping right now and when she wakes up she's going to have to explain everything to the other two guys. They found out about it."

"_Shit. Really? Is she okay then? How long do you think she's going to be sleeping? Yamanaka. If anything happens to her tell the other boys that I'll have their heads on a platter and mounted on my wall! And tell them that anything that she says will stay with them and only them until she is ready to tell everyone else. She hates people pitying her the most. When she told us three, she was scared shitless. Please be gentle with her. She's really fragile. And we love her a lot. She's work this hard to forget it but it's never enough. Hopefully when she tells you guys, it'll be enough to make her stop hurting._

"Okay Temari. I'll tell the other two guys if she gets hurt, that you'll have their heads stuffed and mounted. She'll probably be out for the next couple of hours. Don't worry, if it's longer than that. I'll stay overnight and take care of her at Sasuke's house. He probably won't mind. Right Sasuke?" Ino said in a sickening sweet voice.

Sasuke and Naruto cringed when they heard the threat that Temari had said and Sasuke cringed even further when he heard Ino's voice and nodded furiously scared for his life.

"_Alright. Thanks Ino. We owe you one. If anything call this number and we'll come over at anytime and help you out with her. Remember she has a weak body when overly stressed so make sure you have an emergency kit nearby. Remember Yamanaka if anything happens they are dead. Call if anything happens. I'll be at work with my brothers if anything. Ja Ino."_

"Alright Temari. I'll call if anything happens. Ja ne."

Ino cut the line and turned to the pale boys. 'Poor guys. They're scared of Temari.'

"Alright than. Sakura and I will be staying overnight, so do you have any spare clothes like t-shirts and shorts or something we can change into, so we could wash our uniforms for tomorrow?"

Sasuke nodded and left the room to retrieve the clothing. Naruto fidgeted around looking a bit uncomfortable with the situation.

"What's wrong Naruto? How about this…You can stay here too. Since you know a bit of what is happening."

"Okay! I want to make her feel better, it's just wrong that _that_ had to happen to her." Naruto replied.

"Yeah…I know…"

Sasuke returned with two black t-shirts and shorts and handed them over to Ino. She nodded her thanks and went into the washroom attached in the room to get changed. When she returned in Sasuke's clothes she pushed the two guys outside.

"Out! Out!"

"But why Ino-o? I wanna stay here with Sakura-chan!" Naruto whined.

"PERVERT! I'm going to change Sakura's clothes! Sasuke get this pervert out of here!" Ino screamed.

Sasuke shook his head at his best friend's antics. 'Why is my best friend so dense?' He took Naruto's arm and dragged him out of the room, scared that Ino would beat them into oblivion. When the door shut, Ino got up and slowly and gently undress Sakura and put her into the new outfit. But as she put on the new clothes she saw little red marks on Sakura's hands in the shape of a crescent moon.

'She's having a nightmare, if she's clenching her fists this hard.'

When she was doe she opened the door to reveal the other two boys on the ground looking bored as hell.

"You guys can come in now. I'm done changing her." Ino said.

The two boys walked into the room and sat down on the chairs in complete silence.

"Ne, teme. What are you going to do for the art project? It is due tomorrow right?" Naruto asked.

"I don't think anyone is done theirs. So let's work on it now while she's sleeping and we can kill time. Wei!"

The butler walked into the room and bowed.

"Yes, Young Master?"

"Can you get us three easels and canvases and my paint supplies for us? We have to do an art project." Sasuke asked.

"Of course, Young Master." Wei bowed and left the room to retrieve the materials. When he returned he set up the easels in front of the three teenagers and left. Naruto, Sasuke and Ino just stared at the canvases before them wondering what they were going to do for the project. Ino's eyes lit up when she thought of an idea and her hands began to dance across the page, adding dashes of colours here and there making her painting come to life. Sasuke and Naruto just stared at the blonde with wide eyes as they saw her painting slowly resemble people they know. It was a picture of them in the mall with bags all around them, and everyone was sitting beside one another with big smiles plastered on their faces except for Gaara, Sasuke and Neji who had smirks on their faces. Everyone looked so happy and content with each other. The two boys had a look of awe on their faces when they saw Ino pull away from the canvas after an hour of non-stop painting.

"Sugoi Ino! It looks so real! Even teme looks happy and he's a block of ice!" Naruto said with much enthusiasm.

Ino laughed as she turned away from her project. "Thanks Naruto! I just had the sudden urge to paint this where everyone is happy! What do you think about this Sasuke?"

Sasuke pulled his mask back on and stared out the window located beside him. "It looks…nice Ino."

Both blondes laughed at his compliment knowing that was all they were going to get out of the stoic boy. Naruto turned back to his canvas and started to doodle on it with a grin on his face and began to hum a song about ramen.

"Ramen is the best thing in the world! Ramen is the best thing for me. Ramen is my love for life other than Hinata-chan!"

Sasuke and Ino fell over anime style at this. Sasuke sat up quickly and coughed slightly and Ino just remained on the ground burying her face into the palm of her hand.

'How are we friends? This guy is a total moron!' They thought simultaneously.

Sasuke turned to his own canvas and stared at it with a killer intent.

'What the hell am I supposed to draw? Something from the past or whatever!?' His killer intent increased further, wanting to shred the canvas to a million pieces of scrap paper.

Naruto and Ino stopped what they were doing when they felt the dark aura slowly increase in the vicinity. The two of them looked at each other and slowly turned towards the boy sitting near the window with a scared and confused look on their face.

'Geez. What made him so mad? If he glares at it any harder it just might suddenly combust into flames.' The two of them thought with sweat drops.

They began to slowly giggle at the thought of the canvas bursting into a pile of ashes because of Sasuke's glare. Soon enough the giggles turned into full blasts of laughter that rang throughout the room, amplifying the sound. Sasuke turned away from his canvas when he heard the fits of laughter and turned his face towards the two blondes in the room with a confused look on his face.

"What are you two laughing about?" He asked.

The pair of them looked at each other and the bouts of laughter increased dramatically, scaring the raven head boy.

"N-nothing." Ino replied as she hid her mouth with the back of her hand.

Naruto just stuffed his fist into his mouth to muffle the sound, but it wasn't really helping. Sasuke glared at the two for keeping a secret from him and laughing about it too! A noise made everyone freeze and turn towards the bed where Sakura began to stir from her slumber.

"Hey, I think she's waking up!" Naruto yelled, clearly excited that his friend was feeling a bit better.

Ino walked over to the bed and put her head on Sakura's forehead to feel if she had developed a fever during the past few hours. Her eyes opened revealing dull sleepy ones and she sat upright staring at everyone around her with her dead orbs.

"Hey Saku. How you feeling?" Ino asked, concerned.

"Okay. Where are we?" She asked dully.

"We're at my house. You were yelling about stuff. I knocked you out and brought you here. Sorry if that hurt." Sasuke said coldly.

Sakura raised her hand and touched the back of her neck and winced.

'Ow. That baka hits hard.'

Everyone looked at Sakura with a funny look on their faces when they saw her reach up to the back of her neck.

"Sasuke-teme you baka! You hit the back of her neck hard! Why'd you do that for?!"

"Sasuke! What did you do to her neck!? If she's hurt me and Temari will kill you! You heard what she said on the phone right? Well that is about to become a reality tomorrow!"

"Aha! Teme is gonna get owned, and by two girls too! Aha!"

Sasuke had a tick on his forehead as he was being hit with plenty of insults by the two blondes.

"URUSAI YOU STUPID MORONS! I didn't do anything to her! That pain is absolutely normal. I've been trained in martial arts long enough to know that." Sasuke replied stiffly.

"That better be true or else your head ain't the only thing being mounted on Temari's wall…" Ino said, feeling sorry for the boy.

A giggle cut cleanly through the atmosphere. Everyone froze and slowly turned their heads towards the bed where the pinkette was trying to muffle her laughter behind her hands. Ino and Naruto soon joined in afterwards with the laughter, only Sasuke didn't. Instead he was hiding his amusement behind a smirk. As their laughter died down to minimal giggles and chuckles everyone focused their attention to the pink haired girl.

"How are you feeling Sakura-chan?" Naruto asked.

"I said I was fine Naruto." Sakura replied with a sigh.

"Sakura I think you should tell them about _it._ They already know half the story when you were yelling about it in the hall. They want to help you about it. Please?" Ino asked.

Sakura's form became rigid and she began to pale quickly.

"Sakura-chan. Please calm down. They're not going to do anything to you. I'll make sure of it. They just want to help you like me and sand siblings want to, but you always put this wall up between us. I know you don't want to relive those memories again and I feel guilty knowing I'm your best friend and I wasn't there to help you through this. Do you have any idea how I felt when I found out you were hurt this badly? I felt so guilty that the world was so unfair to you. I felt guilty knowing that my best friend, the one person who is a sister to me went through hell and back and I wasn't there to help her with it. Please Sakura. Please let us help you. I want you to forget about this and move on and take up the arts again like Sai would want you to." Ino whispered desperately.

Sakura just sat on the bed looking at her hand torn between saving herself from reliving this nightmare and have help or have this bottled inside her soul for the rest of her life and never be able to move on. Everyone saw her inner struggle and they felt their heartstrings being pulled painfully.

'**Sakura. You should let them help you. They all look so sincere about this. They really want to help you through this.'**

'I know they mean well…but I just hate people pitying me. They might treat me differently than before they knew about this.'

'**Not really. They won't pity you. Look at Ino…she knows about it before and she doesn't pity you. Look at her! She wants to help you. She feels guilty for not helping you before when it actually happens and she wants to make amends with this. I think she thinks you hate her because she wasn't there to help you through it.'**

'Yeah…she does…but do _they_ want to help me or pity me is what I'm thinking of.'

'**They don't look like they want to pity you…they look kind of guilty don't you think?'**

'Yeah that's true…I wonder why.'

'**Why don't you ask them?'**

Sakura looked up and stared at the three of them with a new resolve burning through her being. She turned to the boys and inspected them with her eyes, looking for anything that might show their untruthfulness in helping her forget the past. She beckoned the two of them over to her with her hand. The boys looked at each other and silently rose from their seats and made their way to either sides of her bed looking down at her.

"Sasuke, Naruto…do you really want to help me and not pity me?" She asked eerily calm.

They both shuddered at her tone but suppressed it and nodded at the bed-ridden girl. She studied them both carefully and nodded her head and everyone felt relieved that she believes them.

"I will only tell you guys, if you answer my question truthfully and without complaining. Alright?" She asked the boys. They nodded their consent. She took a deep breath and asked.

"You guys don't know me very well and yet you two look guilty because of my situation. Why is that? Is there something you know that I don't?"

The two boys stiffened when they heard the question. 'Shit. I didn't think she would ask that.' They looked at each other and they stared each other down, debating over who was going to answer the question.

"I'm waiting."

Sasuke gave in and Naruto visibly relaxed a bit. "Sakura, promise me you won't hate me and my family once you hear what I have to say."

Sakura looked confused and but nodded. "Of course. Why would I hate you? You haven't done anything to me."

Sasuke stiffened even further after hearing her innocent reply. "The reason me and Naruto look so guilty is because…um…the eye that was in your drawing…um…is an Uchiha bloodline. Meaning only Uchihas would have it…but that particular pattern belongs to only one person in our family…and that belongs to…my elder brother…_Uchiha Itachi_." He spat the last part out venomously and braced himself for her reply with his head bowed in respect. "I'm sorry."

Sakura and Ino's eyes widened.

"ARE YOU SERIOUS!?" The blonde shrieked. "He's your brother!?"

Sasuke nodded and bowed his heads even further. "I'm sorry on his behalf. You didn't deserve to be treated like that in the past."

Sakura looked like she had seen a ghost when she heard that Sasuke was _his_ younger brother. She couldn't even think properly. She didn't know what to do. Her body began to tremble as she took in this information.

'They have the same blood. His brother ruined my life. He took away what was mine.'

"Sakura get a hold of yourself. This isn't Sasuke's fault. It is his brother's, not his. So don't hate him. You gave him your word that you wouldn't hate him once he told you why he felt so guilty." Naruto said.

'**He's right you know? It isn't Sasuke's fault. But rather his brother's. Look at how he feels Sakura…he feels guilty that his own brother did this to you.'**

'You're right. I shouldn't take this against him. He did tell me ahead of time not to hate him and he does feel guilty.'

Sakura stopped trembling and looked at Sasuke's bowed head. She reached over and put her hand under his chin and raised his head and her eyes met his. Her eyes softened when she saw his cold eyes filled with guilt and worry over her past.

"I'm sorry Sasuke, if I made you think I was mad at you. You didn't do anything and yet you are saying sorry for his sin. Thank you for telling me the truth. I really appreciate it. And same to you too Naruto. Thank you for your support." Sakura said as she bowed as best as she could since she was in bed.

They all looked at Sakura with appreciative looks and each had a small smile on their faces.

"Since all of you guys want to help me get through this…I guess I should tell you guys from the beginning. You guys may want to sit down…"

Sakura leaned against the backboard of the bed and Sasuke and Naruto sat down on the floor while Ino situated herself on the edge of the bed.

"It happened the first day when we all began school at the academy…"

-- x -- Flashback -- x --

"Sa-Ku-Ra-chan! You start school today right?" A black haired boy asked.

"Hai, Sai-nii-chan! I'm so excited! I hope I make new friends! Can I spend lunch with you today?" A pink hair girl asked.

"Yes you can spend lunch with me. You look so excited." Sai laughed.

The two of them were sitting at the dining table with their parents on either end.

"You look so cute Sakura-chan in your uniform!" Her mother gushed.

Sakura blushed. "Thanks okaa-san! I really like it! What do you think otou-san?"

The eldest male was hidden behind a bunch of newspaper he was reading. He lowered it to reveal obsidian eyes and raven hair.

"You look adorable blossom." He replied with a smile.

"Come on, imouto! We got to go to school now." Sai said.

"Okay!"

The two of them went to the front door and put their shoes on and grabbed their knapsacks.

"Bye, everyone!" Sakura chirped.

The two elementary school students left with small smiles on their faces.

"Sa-Ku-Ra-Chaaaannn!" A blonde yelled from down the streets.

"Ino-chan! Ohayo!" The rosette called back. "Are you excited for our first day at the academy?"

"Of course! Hiya Sai-kun!"

"Ohayo, Ino-chan." Sai replied politely.

The three of them walked together towards the building. When they arrived Sai left them and headed towards his own class.

"Sai-nii-chan! Remember we're all eating lunch together!"

"Hai, hai." He replied waving his hand to let them know he heard them.

"Sakura-chan. I got to go to the washroom. I'll be right back okay? Just stay under the cherry blossom tree!"

"Okay. I'll wait here for you." Sakura said with a smile on her face as she sat down.

'I can't believe that I'm actually going to school here! It's going to be so much fun!"

She heard footsteps approach her and saw a shadow coming toward her. She thought it was Ino coming back from the restroom.

"Ino-chan! That was fast. Do you know which class we're in?"

"I am not Yamanaka Ino, forehead. I am Watanabe Ami. The prettiest girl in the whole entire academy."

'**Vein much?'** Sakura looked up to see a girl about her age with long purple hair and amethyst coloured eyes and a bunch of girls standing behind her.

'Sugoi. She's so pretty.'

"Ohayo Watanabe-san! My name is Haruno Sakura! Do you and your friends want to be my friends?" The oblivious girl asked.

"Who would want to be _your_ friend? You're so ugly and hideous. Who in the world has **pink** hair? Only a freak does. Yamanaka is only your friend because she pities you because you're so ugly. I don't know how you're related to one of the hottest guys in the academy Sai-kun."

"Why are you so mean to me Watanabe-san? I haven't done anything to offend you have I?" Sakura asked, as tears welled up in her eyes.

"Oi! Sakura-chan! I'm sorry that took so long. My hair had something in it!" Ino yelled as she ran up to the girl. "Who are you guys and why is Sakura crying?!"

"We didn't do anything Yamanaka-san. She was already crying when we came up to her."

"Liar! Sakura doesn't cry that easily. What did you say to her?!" Ino screamed at the girls.

A trembling pale hand grabbed Ino's and tugged her back to prevent her from attacking the other girls.

"It's okay Ino-chan. They were just telling me that they liked Sai-nii-chan."

Ino looked at the sniffling girl with disbelieving eyes but brushed it aside.

"Leave Sakura-chan alone or else I'll tell Sai-kun that you were mean to her. He'll hate you guys forever. Now go away. We got to get to class."

Ino grabbed Sakura's hand and dragged her towards the school to find their class. The fangirls looked at the pair with wide eyes not believing that the blonde brushed them off like they were nothing.

"It's going to be okay Sakura-chan! They're just a bunch of idiots."

"Yeah…I guess you're right."

"Of course I'm right! I'm Yamanaka Ino! And don't forget that!" Ino said with a grin.

The girls giggle as they walked down the hallway to their classroom taught by Iruka-Sensei. When they arrived in the class they sat down together and their teacher came in through the door and began class. The day went by quickly without anything else happening to the pair of them. The three of them were walking home and Ino went into her house leaving the two siblings by themselves.

"Imouto how was your first day of school?" Sai asked.

"Well…it was pretty boring and nothing happened. Except for the fact that there were a bunch of girls that came up to me and said mean stuff to me just because I'm your sister and stuff like that. I never knew that _you_ had fangirls! Aha! Blackmail! I can make fun of you now! Hahahaha!" Sakura giggled.

"Mou Sakura-chan that is just harsh. You wouldn't sell your brother out to those weird girls would you?" Sai pouted.

"Hmm…maybe…maybe not. Depends on how I feel." Sakura said and stuck her tongue out at her brother.

As the two of them approached their house they saw that the door ajar like it was forced opened. The neighbourhood was eerily quiet as they stood on the porch.

"Sai-nii-chan I'm scared." Sakura said fear laced in her voice.

"It's going to be okay Sakura. Hold onto my hand and you'll be alright." Sai said acting brave for his sister, but inside he was scared as well.

They ventured into the house not knowing what they might encounter in their house. They walked through the front door and saw nothing out of place and relaxed a bit and continued to walk through the house trying to find their parents.

"Kaa-san! Tou-san! Where are you?" The two of them yelled.

"Sai-nii-chan, do you smell that? It smells like okaa-san's onigiri and miso soup…Do you think she's in the kitchen and didn't notice the door?" Sakura asked tilting her head to the side.

"I don't know, but let's go find out. Remember quietly." Sai whispered.

Sakura nodded and the two of them walked into the kitchen and saw the pot steaming overflowing with the soup and a plate full of rice balls.

'That's odd kaa-san never leaves the stove on when she's not around. What's that nasty smell!?' Sai thought to himself.

The two of them continued to walk into the kitchen and when they walked behind the island, Sakura screamed.

"OKAA-SAN! TOU-SAN!" She screamed at the site.

Sai pulled his sister away from them and covered her eyes with his hands and dragged her outside the house. He was sickened by what they both had seen. There was blood everywhere. It was dripping from the side of the island onto the floor where their parents lay on top of one another. Their eyes were bleeding and their mouths were agape. Both bodies had slashes and cuts everywhere and the clothes wore torn and shredded to pieces. Sai pulled his sister into a tight hug and put her on his back while saying words of comfort. He walked towards a neighbour's house down the block and rang the door bell furiously. The door opened revealing a man named Yamato.

"Sorry for intruding, but may we come in? It's important."

"Sai, Sakura-chan. What are you guys doing here? Is something the matter with Sakura-chan? Why is she crying?" He asked as he ushered the pair into his house.

Sai put his sister down on the couch and beckoned Yamato to follow him.

"Sai, what is wrong?" Yamato asked looking concerned.

"Can you call the police please? Our parents are dead. Imouto and I saw them on the kitchen floor when we came home and the door was forced open and there was so much blood and Sakura is crying now and I don't know what to do and and and…" Sai was panicking.

"Sai! Calm down. I'll call them right now." Yamato quickly dialled the number for the Konoha Police Force and told them about the murder.

Sai walked into the living room and saw his sister sleeping on the couch with tears still streaming down her face. He found a small blanket and draped it over her small body. He situated himself on the opposite chair and stared at the ground not knowing what else to do.

'Okaa-san and tou-san are dead. What's going to happen to us? Who is going to take care of us? Who's going to buy medicine for Sakura-chan's asthma? How are we going to live? What am I supposed to do?' These thoughts were running through Sai's mind as he sat there.

Yamato walked into the living room with cups of tea for them and gave one to Sai and put the other one on the table beside Sakura.

"I called them. They're going to be there soon and one is going to come here."

Sai just nodded not knowing what else to say. The atmosphere between the two males was tense, neither knowing what to say to comfort one and the other not knowing what to ask. The doorbell rang and Yamato stood up to answer the door. Sakura began to stir from her sleep and she sat up. Sai walked over to her and pulled her into a hug as she began to cry again.

"What's going to happen to us Sai-nii-chan? What are we going to do?" Sakura sobbed into his shoulder.

"I don't know imouto."

Yamato walked into the living room with a nice looking police officer behind him.

"Sakura-chan, Sai, this is Officer Uchiha Fugaku. He's going to ask you some questions okay?"

The two of them nodded and sat down on the couch. The questioning went on for a while and Officer Fugaku stood up when everything was done. He was about to leave when Sakura asked him a question.

"Fugaku-san. What is going to happen to us?" Sakura asked.

The officer turned around and looked at the two with soft eyes and sighed deeply. 'I hate this about my job.'

"You guys will be place into an orphanage where you will live until someone either adopts you or when you reach the age of 16 and can live on your own." He said to them as softly as he could.

Sakura just looked scared while Sai looked emotionless. The officer bowed and left for their house. Yamato looked at them with a saddened expression. He and their parents were good friends and now they were gone. He sighed inwardly and asked them if they wanted to eat anything. They shook their heads and continued to sit there.

"So you guys want to stay here for the night before you guys have to go to school tomorrow and then the orphanage?" He asked it was the least he could do.

They two just nodded and followed him upstairs where he opened the door to the guest room. They two of them walked into the room and Yamato went downstairs to prepare some dinner. The Haruno siblings sat on the bed and looked at the ground not knowing what to make of this. They don't know what to do anymore. Soon they fell asleep and the next morning they were sent to school. They put on a façade that nothing had happened. They didn't want anyone to know that they were orphans now. When school ended there was a police officer waiting for them in the front of the school to escort them to their new home for the next couple of years. The two siblings were like zombies, nothing would faze them anymore as they continued their new lives without any parental guidance. They had made a promise to each other never to leave the other behind in any way.

After a few days they were outside and they were exploring the neighbourhood when they ran into some people from the infamous Akatsuki. Sakura was scared and was hiding behind Sai as they slowly backed away from the intimidating pair. They were in the back of an alleyway and were trapped. The taller of the two attacked Sai with a dagger of some sort and he screamed in agony and Sakura screamed in fear.

"R-run. Sakura-chan. G-get a-away from he-here." He stuttered as he choked on the blood flooding his lungs.

Sakura was petrified. She was rooted to the spot. 'I can't move. I'm scared.'

She watched in fear as the tall shark-like man laughed and cackled as he continued to stab the half dead body of her brother, relishing the screams coming from his mouth. Soon the 

screaming ceased and the man began to lick his knife clean tasting the blood and bloodlust began to grow once again in his eyes. Sakura cried and cried as she watched the gory site of her brother being killed in front of her. She ran to her brother falling onto her knees shaking and crying over his body.

"WHY NII-CHAN? WHY DID YOU DO THAT? DON'T LEAVE ME! PLEASE! I NEED YOU!" She screamed.

"What a pretty girl… maybe we can have some fun with the blossom." A man with a light blue tinted skin said, his gill-like tattoos moving as his muscles were contracting and loosening as he talked. "Don't you think so…hmm...Itachi-kun?"

The said male looked down at the four year old girl sobbing and calling out her brother's name.

"Sai! Sai-nii-chan wake up! Onegai! Don't leave me…not like they did! Please…please…"

He silently approached the sobbing girl as she buried her tear-stained face in Sai's chest covered in a crimson liquid and grabbed her hand. He threw her against the wall where she cried out in pain and fell to her knees attempting to escape their clutches. She saw feet approaching her and looked up to crimson eyes and backed away in the fear that was developing rapidly. He bent down and pulled her chin upwards a crushed his mouth on her pale quivering lips and pushed her down none too gently. Sakura began to struggle futilely against the older male. The Uchiha began to undress her shirt with a lustful intent growing in his eyes.

"Stop! Please!" She begged squirming from underneath him. Itachi acted as if he didn't hear anything and continued to torture the small girl. They two gang members soon left the alleyway and walked back to their headquarters leaving the corpse of the boy and a sobbing four-year old girl behind in their wake. Sakura scrambled up ignoring the pain between her legs and screamed out her brother's name as she made her way toward his body.

"SAI! WAKE UP! PLEASE! DON'T LEAVE ME ALONE! YOU PROMISED ME THAT YOU WOULD NEVER LEAVE ME BEHIND. YOU PROMISED ME!" She screamed at the top of her small lungs. She began to cough and she struggled to breathe.

'Stupid asthma.'

On the other side of the street a pair of women were walking out of a bar, one was drunk and the other one sober and reprimanding the one who was drunk.

"Tsunade-sama. You know better than to drink." A raven haired woman scolded as she carried a small pig in her arms.

"Since when have – hic – I listened to that Shizune-chan? You – hic – should loosen up sometime. You're – hic – too uptight." The drunken blonde said as she staggered down the street.

Suddenly Ton-Ton the pig jumped out of Shizune's arms and raced across the street, avoiding cars on the way. Cars were swerving here and there trying to avoid the mammal.

"Ton-Ton! Come back here! That's dangerous! Ton-Ton!" Shizune yelled.

She grabbed her sensei and dragged her across the street to chase the small pig.

"Ton-Ton! Where are you? Ton-Ton!?" Shizune called out. She suddenly stopped when a metallic smell hit her senses head on.

"Argh. What is that smell? It smells like blood! Tsunade-sama! There's blood somewhere here! Someone might be hurt!" Shizune said to the elder women.

Tsunade snapped out of her drunken state and looked around. She heard a faint sniffing sound and coughing from the back of the alleyway. She followed the sound and the scent and walked into a dark alley and was met with a gruesome scene. Shizune gasped at the site.

"Bweee…bwiee."

"P-please get a-away from me." A small girl said through coughing fits as she pushed the small pink pig away from her with a bloody hand.

The two of them saw a small girl probably around four years old covered in blood and crying over a corpse of a slightly older boy. Tsunade and Shizune approached the girl with extreme precaution careful not to scare the girl even further. Shizune whipped out her cell phone and called for an emergency unit to come. Tsunade examined the girl quickly her medical side taking over and gasped.

"Shizune!" She hissed. "She's a rape victim!"

Shizune gasped. "What a terrible fate this girl has…"

They heard sirens in the distance and continued to try and calm the small girl down.

"Please calm down. You're only going to hurt yourself even more. And that asthma of yours is going to get worse." Tsunade cooed at the rosette.

Sakura began to back away from the two until she hit the wall behind her. Ton-Ton trotted up to her and stuck her snout into the coughing girl's side trying to calm her down. Colourful dots were decorating Sakura's vision as her breathing became erratic.

"Dammit! Her asthma has been going on for too long. Her body is shutting down! Get a stretcher here NOW!" Tsunade screamed at the opening of the alley.

People dressed in white uniforms and red crosses adorned on the back rushed from one end of the alley to the other and back with a stretcher in between them and a bleeding girl on it. They heard the slamming of the ambulance and the siren slowly fading away as the vehicle made its way to the hospital. A police officer made his way to Tsunade and Shizune quickly. He took a quick look at the corpse being lifted into the black bag and gasped.

"Sai!" He said with a look of horror on his face. "How could this happen? He was fine a couple of days ago!"

The two females looked at the police officer with a look of surprise on their faces.

"You know him?" They asked in unison.

Officer Fugaku nodded gravely. "Yeah. His name is Haruno Sai and I'm guessing the person in the ambulance was Haruno Sakura, his younger sister."

"How do you know them?" Shizune asked.

"They became orphans a couple of days ago. Their parents were murdered on the first day of school, and they came home seeing their bodies on the floor with in a pile of blood. Poor Sakura…she's been through so much in the last couple of days. Her whole family was killed in less than a week."

The two retired medics looked at the officer in horror.

"Are you serious?"

He nodded once again.

"Shizune I'm adopting her. I fear that her asthma has gotten worse. It might affect her lungs and her heart." Tsunade said with determination in her eyes.

They made their way to the hospital in the car that Fugaku had. They had made it in time to see the girl wake up.

"Sakura-chan. I'm going to be your okaa-san from now on okay? And she's going to be your sister okay?" Tsunade asked as she introduced the two of them.

Sakura didn't reply. She just stared at the white ceiling with dead emerald eyes.

-- x -- End of Flashback -- x --

"That's it. How it all happened." Sakura said with a dull heavy tone. Even though she felt like a tonne was taken off of her shoulders, it had cost her the pain of reliving it once again.

The three other occupants stared at the girl in awe, not knowing how she was able to live through so much pain when she was younger and yet keep a smile on her face most of the time. Ino was in tears, Naruto was shaking with anger, and Sasuke kept his composure up but inwardly he was furious and cursing Itachi's very being in any way he could.

"Don't worry Sakura-chan. We're going to help you forget all of this! Starting with the trip to the amusement park this Saturday!" Naruto yelled as he pumped his fist in the air, trying to lighten the mood up.

Sakura giggled at his cheery expression. She slowly stood up and walked over to Naruto. She knelt beside him. Naruto looked at her with a confused look on his face.

"Sakura-chan what are you doing?" He asked.

She just shook her head and pulled him into a hug and whispered 'thank you' into his ear.

"You're welcome Sakura-chan. I'll do my best to help you." He replied in her own ears as he put his arms around her frame hugging her back.

She pulled back with a genuine smile on her face and tears in her eyes. She made her way over to Sasuke and knelt down beside him and pulled him into a hug as well. Sasuke stiffened not use to such contact and put his arms awkwardly around her.

"Thank you Sasuke for telling me the truth. Don't feel guilty. I know that it was hard for you." She whispered into his ear.

Sasuke didn't reply and fought to keep his blush to a minimum but the blondes spotted it.

'**AHA! I knew it! You like her! Aha! I'm a genius!'**

'Urusai baka!'

The two other saw his blush and began to giggle softly.

Ino took her phone out and took a picture of them discreetly. 'Blackmail!' She and Naruto hi-fived and just watched the two of them. Sakura pulled back with a smile and began to laugh at Sasuke's expression.

"Thanks you guys. I can't wait for Saturday. And don't you guys have to do the art project?" She said as she looked around the room and spotting the art easels.

Ino and Naruto were already done theirs but Sasuke hasn't even started. A knock at the door interrupted them.

"Young Master and his guests, dinner is ready." Wei said through the door.

"Alright! Dinner!" Naruto yelled. The girls laughed at his response while Sasuke shook his head. Sakura looked at her appearance and noticed that she was wearing male clothing.

"Umm…Ino-pig. Whose clothes am I wearing and who changed me?"

"I changed you and those are Sasuke's and Naruto was a pervert who didn't want to get out of the room until Sasuke dragged him out." She replied.

Sakura's face turned red when she heard the last part.

"NARUTO YOU PERVERT!" She screamed.

Naruto ran downstairs quickly trying to hide from the enraged pink hair female. She chased him down the stairs and the remaining two just followed them with the dignity that they had.

"Hey wait up you guys!" She screamed as she raced down the stairs. Sasuke followed with an amused smirk on his face.

Dinner ended with Naruto eating almost everything there was and Ino scolding him for his nasty eating habits. They all went upstairs and got ready for bed. Sakura and Ino in one room, Sasuke in his and Naruto in another. Moments before Ino fell asleep she thought to herself, 'This is a new start for you Sakura and this time with your friends by your side.' Ino thought to herself with a smile. Soon enough everyone was fast asleep except for Sasuke who was staring at the canvas before him. He slowly dipped the end of his brush onto a pallet and began to paint his project. A couple of hours later he was done and put everything away and went to sleep.

_**To be continued…**_

* * *

Ack! What a long chapter! Hoped you enjoyed it! Please read and review!

X.x.Kuro-Neko-Chan.x.X


	11. Just Another Day Part One

Never Forgotten

Chapter 11: Just Another Day Prt.1

* * *

AHHHHHHHHHHH! Sorry for the very, very late update. O___O

I've been really busy with school and my own personal life D:

Thank you to 21xR.13-KiMbeRLy, kerapal bubbles, ToraHimeSama, kataang2, gianna loves SasuSaku, Kurai hi, ..x.X, SasuSaku13636, Sara, BlessTheDevil, 0, and TwiLigHT8D for reviewing!

And a thanks to all those who have put this story on 'Story Alert' or 'Favourites'! I really appreciate it a lot you guys!

Thanks to Sara for encouraging me to finish this chapter! =D

**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or any of the characters!**

* * *

.X. Recap .X.

Moments before Ino fell asleep she thought to herself, 'This is a new start for you Sakura and this time with your friends by your side.' Ino thought to herself with a smile. Soon enough everyone was fast asleep except for Sasuke who was staring at the canvas before him. He slowly dipped the end of his brush onto a pallet and began to paint his project. A couple of hours later he was done and put everything away and went to sleep.

* * *

Pale rays of sunlight filtered itself in between the drapes in the girl's room in the Uchiha mansion and rested itself on Sakura's pale relaxed face. The pinkette began to stir, her internal clock telling her to wake up and get on with the day. She sat up slowly, warily blinking her eyes ridding it of any sleep and clumsily got out of bed and out the door, trying to find the washroom. Her eyes snapped open when she realized that this wasn't her house. She released a terrified scream from the hallway as she sunk to the carpet.

"KYAAAAAAAAAAAAA!"

Her screams echoed throughout the whole mansion waking up all of the occupants. All those who were asleep were now on the ground, groaning and complaining about the early morning call. Ino was the first to recover as she realized that her best friend was missing from the room.

'Awwww. Shoot. I forgot that this is the first time Sakura was at Sasuke's house. She must have gotten lost or something.' She jumped up and raced outside, trying to locate her friend, but she suddenly tripped over an object slumped over on the ground and landed on top of the thing.

"Owwww…" The object whined. "Why does this always happen to me?"

Ino looked down and saw her best friend rubbing the back of her head in pain and panicked.

"AHH! Sakura! Sorry about that. I heard you screaming and I thought that you got lost or something." Ino rambled.

Just then two doors opened down the hall, with three figures emerging them rubbing their eyes groggily.

"W-what happened Ino?" Sasuke asked as he stifled a yawn with the back of his hand.

Sakura pushed Ino off of her and stood up quickly and bowed to the three.

"Gomen! I forgot that I was staying here for the night and I kind of panicked thinking I was kidnapped or something. Gomen!" Sakura apologized to the three.

"Ahhh. So this was who you were talking about Sasuke-chan." The female said with a happy glint in her eyes. "You never mentioned that she was so adorable! Pardon my manners. I am Uchiha Mikoto, Sasuke's mother. And this – she points to the man beside her – is my husband, Uchiha Fugaku." She introduced.

Sakura's eyes widened when she heard the name of the stern looking male beside the beautiful women with long raven hair.

"U-Uchiha F-Fugaku?" She stuttered out of shock.

The man who was dozing off against the door's frame jolted awake when he heard his name being called and turn his attention to the one who called him. He stared at her for a few seconds before he registered the colour of her hair and eyes, he nearly fell over when he recognized her.

"K-kuu-chan?" Sakura said hesitantly, as she stumbled forward from shock.

"Haruno Sakura!?" He asked, as he took a few steps towards the girl.

Sakura nodded vigorously and launched herself into his outstretched arms and began to bawl her eyes out, seeing one of her protectors as a child. Ino and Sasuke just stared at the pair with shock looks on their faces. Mikoto realized that this was the young girl that her husband was talking about a few years back when he came home with a saddened look on his face. He had told her about Sakura's past and her family and her heart went out to the small girl.

'How do they know each other?' The two teenagers thought to themselves.

"Sakura! How are you!? Are you okay? When did you get back to Konoha?! How do you know Sasuke!?" He shot off questions one after the other as he continued to console the girl.

"I'm fine. I'm fine. I got back about a week ago. I know him from school." She answered in order, before giggling and sniffling at the man's expression.

'I have never seen otou-sama that lively in the morning before.' Sasuke thought in awe, as he stared at them.

"Otou-sama…how do you know Sakura?" Sasuke asked after a couple minutes. The two students leaned in, eager to know the bond that the two share.

Fugaku looked at Sakura as if asking for Sakura's permission to answer his son's question in front of everyone. Sakura looked at the elder man and gave him a genuine smile, a smile that no one has ever seen for the past eleven years. "Fugaku-san…you can tell them. They already know…" She trailed off.

Fugaku nodded and was happy to see a real smile, not the fake kind she always had on her face. "I knew Sakura since she was four years old because I was the one who had questioned her and her brother when her parents were…murdered. And I saw her be taken to the hospital after that night." He said struggling for the right words.

He looked down at Sakura with happiness in his eyes. He hasn't seen her since the day she left for Suna with her surrogate mother and sister and the little pink pig of theirs. He sighed as he let go of Sakura and stood up. Sakura stood up as well with a content smile on her face seeing one of the people who were kind to her earlier in her life. She looked around and saw Ino and Sasuke with a shocked expression on their faces as they look from her to the elder male and back again. Mikoto was just smiling at the scene and began to giggle at her son's expression.

'Yare, yare. I've never seen Sasuke so close to a female before…' She thought with a sly tone.

Sakura looked around and realized that the blonde male wasn't with them.

"Uhh…Where's Naruto?" She asked the two of them. "I thought that he would have woken up with my scream." She said rubbing the back of her head sheepishly.

Everyone looked around for the ramen–lover but couldn't spot him anywhere. Just then the five of them heard a noise coming from down the hall and looked at one another with a mischievous look on their faces.

"Wei!" Sasuke yelled down the stairs.

The butler walked calmly up with a maid behind him, both holding two buckets each of ice cold water. Sasuke and Ino smirked sadistically knowing what was going to happen to the blonde. Sakura just looked confused and tilted her head to the side unaware of the plans running through her friend's heads. Fugaku and Mikoto were smiling knowing that the blonde would have an unwanted morning call. Wei and the young maid handed the buckets of water over to Sasuke, Ino and Sakura carefully, not wanting to spill the clear liquid onto the ground. They slowly walked towards the noise coming from the room with fox-like stealth, slowly opening the door to find a lump on the bed. Sasuke and Ino looked at each other with a knowing look.

Their expressions stating that Naruto was on the far side of the bed, probably sleeping. They tip toed in softly with Sakura trailing behind struggling with the bucket of water. As they reached the bed they saw a mop of blonde hair peeking out from underneath the covers, moving up and down in rhythm with his breathing. Sakura just stood there with two buckets sitting innocently beside her foot as she stared at the sleeping blonde with interest. Ino and Sasuke took their positions on either side of the sleeping boy; Sakura standing at the foot of the bed and nodded to each other.

'Three.'

'Two.'

'ONE!'

The two of them took their buckets and dumped it on the blonde in sync, showering him with the icy water.

"ARGHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

Naruto, graceful as a rat, jumped out of the bed. He got tangled in the comforter and fell face first into one of the bucket beside Sakura. Sakura jumped out of the way to avoid the water from splashing onto her, while Ino was laughing her head off and Sasuke was grinning in amusement. The three of them watched as Naruto struggled to remove the bucket from his head while colourfully cursing every word you could think of. Sakura taking pity on the poor boy stepped forward to help him remove the contraption.

"Naruto. Hold on. I'll help you take this off." Sakura said, while giggling.

As she reached for the bucket on his head, she slipped on the excess water on the ground and hit the other bucket of water. It flung itself into the air and landed on Sasuke's head, not before spraying some water on Ino's head.

"AHHHHHH!" Ino screamed as the water got into her eyes.

Sakura got the bucket off of Naruto's head and he glomped her into a big hug.

"Thank you, thank you, thank you!" He ranted.

Naruto looked over Sakura's shoulder and saw the bucket overtop of Sasuke's head and began laughing his head off.

"Hahahaha! The bastard has the bucket over his head too! Ahahahaha." Naruto laughed.

Ino and Sakura looked over to where Sasuke stood, his shoulders trembling slightly beneath the rim of the bucket. If Sakura and Ino weren't scared of Sasuke right now they would be laughing their heads off as well. The trembling was now accompanied by a dark aura, slowly increasing. The two girls backed away slowly and edged towards the door while Naruto was still on the ground laughing at Sasuke's predicament.

"Uz-U-Ma-Ki Na-Ru-To! I'm…going to…kill you." Sasuke growled murderously at him.

He brought his hands on either side of his head and slowly pulled the bucket up and over his head. He bowed his head to hide his furious eyes. He suddenly snapped his head up and his eyes were glinting dangerously, flickering from his onyx to red and back. Naruto finally felt the dark aura and abruptly halted his laughing episode and turned towards the Uchiha heir with a scared look on his face.

"Te-teme. W-what a-are you d-doing?" The blonde stuttered from the ground, slowly backing away from the advancing raven-head.

"Why nothing Naruto. I'm just walking up to you…so I can kill you!" Sasuke said as he pounced on the scared boy, pulling him into a head-lock none too gently.

"Ack. Sas-Sasuke!" Naruto chocked out, trying to free himself from the death like hold around his neck. "Itai! It hurts. Let me go teme!"

Ino and Sakura watched from around the door frame as Sasuke attacked Naruto with playful punches here and there with his free arm. All you could hear was Naruto crying for his girlfriend to save his life.

"Hinata-chan! Save me from teme! Kami-sama, what have I done to offend you? Yamete Sasuke-teme!"

His cries echoed throughout the Uchiha mansion, alerting the inhabitants that he was being tortured by his best friend. By then, Mikoto and Fugaku had joined the two girls in watching the small brawl happening inside the room. All they could see was a cloud of smoke with the two boy's silhouette every so often and grunts of pain, courtesy of the blonde.

"Itai! Itai Sasuke-teme! Yamete!" Naruto screeched at the top of his lungs.

"Ne, Sasuke…you're going to kill Naruto if you don't let go of him. His face is turning blue." Ino teased.

Sasuke looked down at the prisoner blonde and saw that what Ino said was true. Naruto's face was turning blue. He released the blonde quickly and stepped away. Naruto just slumped to the ground, trying to regain his breath. Sakura just looked at the two with amusements showing in her eyes.

'This is just like Temari-nee-chan and Kankuro-nii-chan.' She mused to herself with a smile. 'But this is so much more amusing.'

Sakura began to softly giggle at her new friend's childish antics. She was joined by everyone afterwards except Sasuke. He was just standing their scowling at how they can laugh at his expense of being cold and wet.

"What's so funny?" He bit out, grumpy that he was soaked to the bone with ice cold water and his hair was flattened.

"Nothing, nothing. It's just it seems you look like a sulking cat." Sakura replied through breaths.

"Ha ha. Funny." He retorted.

"Now now children. You mustn't fight and bicker this early in morning. Everyone get dried off and get ready for breakfast and then off to school for you four." Mikoto chided from the doorway with a smile on her face.

The four of them grumbled about not wanting to go to school and deal with Gai ranting about their 'unyouthfulness' in skipping gym yesterday. They all sighed and went to freshen themselves up in separate bathrooms for each gender.

"Ne, Sakura-chan. How exactly do you know Fugaku-san?" Ino asked as they began to brush their teeth and whatnot.

"Well…he was the investigator for our parent's case and Sai's case…" Sakura said vaguely.

"Ahh…I see." Ino replied as she wiped her face and began to put on light make up while Sakura was brushing her long hair and tied it up with a red ribbon. The two got ready in their washed uniforms courtesy of the Uchiha maids and walked out of the room to see the guys walking out of theirs. The group walked towards the stairs and entered the dining room area where the Uchiha patriarch and his wife were seated next to each other, waiting for their arrival.

"Now that everyone is here, we can finally have breakfast." Mikoto said from her husband's side. "Please eat as much as you want. The chef went a bit overboard with the cooking when they heard Naruto-kun was here."

Naruto's tanned face turned a hot pink colour as the rest of his company began to laugh or chuckle at his expense.

"Yare, yare. I never knew Naruto had such a reputation here at the Uchiha household when it came to food…" Sakura said, her eyes squinting at him in a teasing matter.

"Saakuuraaa!" Naruto whined from his seat. "That was mean."

"Demo, Naruto-kun, on the contrary, it is very funny." Ino retorted, mischief evident in her eyes as she leant over the table and ruffled Naruto's sun kissed hair.

Sasuke just smirked at Naruto's expression as he was continuously being insulted and teased by the girls. The elders watched the four of them interact with soft eyes, knowing that the pink hair girl had something to do with changing their son's personality.

"Everyone, start eating. You guys have half an hour until school starts." Fugaku told them.

The teenagers began to eat their breakfast with the adults and mingling with one another at the same time. When they were done they began to parade outside to the garage where they got into Sasuke's car and drove off towards the school. Sasuke parked his car into the school's parking lot and carefully scanned his surroundings being wary of his fan club. He could see many girls scouring the parking lot looking for his profile. He stealthily crouched down and began to slowly make his way to his locker inside the school. Naruto opened the car door and began to scream for his shy girlfriend, at the top of his lungs. Almost all of the female population's heads snapped towards the blonde's voice. They began to prowl about looking for Sasuke, knowing that Naruto and he always come to school together.

'Damn stupid Dobe. Now they all know I'm here.' Sasuke mentally scowled.

"THERE HE IS!" Ami yelled, when she saw her love interest crouching down near a red car.

"Fuck." Sasuke muttered. He stood up quickly and ran towards the school with almost all of the girls chasing after him, yelling and confessing their love for him.

"STOP SASUKE-KUN! WE LOVE YOU! PLEASE GO OUT WITH ME! YOU'RE SO HOT!"

'Kuso. I'm gonna murder the dobe and send him to the ninth level of hell!' He cursed as he ran towards the boy's bathroom, his only sanctuary, the only thing that would protect him from the fan-crazed girls who try to rape him every single day. He threw the door open and walked over to the sink to wash his face, trying to cool himself down from all of the running and hiding.

'Must this happen every single day?' He cried mentally in his head, gripping at the edge of the sink.

He sighed. He began to walk towards the door and it swung open revealing Naruto with a grin on his face when he saw his best friend.

"Ahahahaha teme! I knew you would be here! It seems you made it through the morning without getting hurt too bad." Naruto taunted.

Sasuke glared at his best friend intensely as if he was burning a hole through him with his glare continuing to walk towards the exit. He brush past Naruto without a second glance, but at the last second he pulled his hand back and punched Naruto's head, hard.

"Itai! Teme what was that for?" Naruto complained as he rubbed the back of his head.

Sasuke just walked out of the washroom and made his way towards homeroom, avoiding the fangirls on the way there.

--- x --- When Sakura Exited the Car --- x ---

Sakura watched as Sasuke ran towards the school with a horde of screeching banshees trailing behind him.

'Wow. I feel sorry for the guy. He just had to be popular with the girls.' Inner Sakura said, shaking her head with pity for the raven head.

Sakura mentally giggled.

'I wonder why they like him so much. He seems to ignore them and he glares at them with such malice.'

'Maybe they are just too stupid to realize what the glares mean. 'Oh Sasuke-kun. You're so hot. Please go out with me. Bare my children.' How stupid can they get?' Inner imitated in a falsetto voice, batting her lush lashes at an imaginary Sasuke.

'Makes me wonder if they have a brain at all.' Sakura thought as she laughed at her inners cheap imitation of the fangirls.

Sakura slowly opened the door as she continued to chat mindlessly with her inner persona. As soon as she took a step out of the car she was knocked over by a blur of black and blonde.

"SAKURAAAAAAA‼‼" A voice shrieked from above the dazed girl.

"Huh?" Sakura replied hesitantly, as she tried to clear her head from the sudden impact.

"Sakura! Are you feeling better now? Do they know? Are they okay with it? Did Sasuke and Naruto treat you okay? If they didn't I'll freaking castrate them into oblivion!" The sandy blonde screeched, from above Sakura.

Temari was hugging the poor girl until her face turned blue from lack of oxygen, not knowing about the embarrassing position that they were in. Sakura just sat there; completely still, unable to move due to the extra weight on her torso. Ino watched the scene play out from the other side of the parked car with a huge grin on her face, silently laughing at Sakura's futile struggle to free herself.

"Te-Tema-ri! Get o-off of me!" Sakura choked out the best she could.

But the blonde didn't pay any attention to the suffocating pinkette and continued on ranting about killing a certain pair of boys for traumatizing her surrogate sister. Sakura just gave up on trying free herself from the frantic blonde and played dead. Her body became limp and she closed eyes after winking towards Ino and began taking slow and subtle breaths to trick her sister. Ino saw the wink and got the hint. She began to act scared and screeched at the other blonde.

"TEMARI YOU MORON! LOOK AT WHAT YOU DID TO SAKURA!" Ino screeched.

Temari pulled away from the deathly blue-face Sakura and blinked slowly, trying to comprehend what just happened. The stunned blonde began to drastically pale as the colour drained from her face.

"Sak-Sakura?" Temari began to shake the girl furiously trying to get her to wake up. "Sakura? Wake up!"

"It might help if you got off of her." Ino said forcefully.

Temari jumped off the girl and knelt by her side trying to wake her sister up.

"Sakura. Sakura. Wake up!"

Sakura's eyes snapped open and she pounced on the panicking blonde.

"Ack! Mou Sakura. That wasn't funny. I thought you passed out or something. I was so scared. Never do that ever again!" Temari screeched.

Sakura backed off of Temari, her bangs covering her viridian coloured eyes.

"Fine. I'm sorry I scared you, and I'll never do that again." Sakura said.

"Promise?"

"Yes. I promise. Cross my heart and hope to die." The blossom replied.

"Uhhh…this is touching and all, BUT WE NEED TO GET TO CLASS!" Ino yelled from the sidelines.

"Hai, hai!" The cheerful cherry head replied, smiling to her blonde friend.

---X--- Math Class ---X---

"Oi! Teme!! How do you do this!! It's too complicating! I think we should help each other!! Ne ne?!" Naruto tried to wait patiently wait for his cool, calm friend to reply.

But the dark navy haired boy just sat there ignoring his blonde friend.

"Oi!! Oiiii!! TEME!!!!

Sasuke hissed at Naruto "WHAT DO YOU WANT DOBE!?"

"Help meeeeeee!!!!" The fox boy whined.

"Go ask someone ELSE! I have no time for you."

"Fine!! Next time YOU need help I won't help you!!"

"Tsk! I wouldn't even need your help!"

The Pinkette couldn't help but eavesdrop considering she was sitting next to them and wanted to end the conflict.

"Naruto! Do you want some help with your math?" The pink girl smiled at her troubled friend.

"Would I ever!! Arigato Sakura-chan!! AT LEAST SHE'S NICE TEME!!"

Sasuke glared at the yellow tainted hair boy and turned to Sakura.

"Arigatou."

"For what?" the confused blossom head asked.

"For getting rid of this annoying pest."

Naruto's smile turned into a scowl. 'Stupid Teme.' He thought to himself as he glared at his best friend. 'Always so mean to me.'

"Naruto! If you want me to help you, at least pay attention to what I'm saying to you." Sakura reprimanded.

Hearing Sakura's stern voice, Naruto snapped back to reality.

"Gomen Sakura-chan." Naruto said sheepishly as he rubbed the back of his head.

"It's fine. But you have to pay attention. Okay? As I was saying, if you have…" Sakura explained, slowly. "Do you understand it now Naruto?"

Naruto looked up from the sheet he was staring at began to backtrack the steps she had just taught him

"GAH! Sakura-chan! You are a genius! I understand what we have to do now! Thanks a lot!" Naruto yelled, grinning from ear to ear.

Sakura giggled at Naruto's antics and said 'No problem' and turned back to doing her own work. Sasuke was watching her from the corner of his eye and his lips quirked a bit the corners, hinting a very small smile.

'Only she has the patience to teach the dobe.'

Briing! Briing!

"Okay you guys, since you all worked so nicely today, no homework today. Enjoy the rest of your day." Kakashi chimed from behind his book.

"Yatta! No homework!" Naruto cheered as he walked out of the classroom.

~ Skips to Period Three aka. MUSIC! ;D ~

"Everyone please take your seats. Today we will be working on our pieces for the Spring Festival. So you guys can either choose to sing or play an instrument or both as a band. Just think of it and come talk to me about it so I can approve of it. Alright?"

"Hai."

"Alright then get to work. I want everyone's part by the end of the period."

Sakura walked up to the front of the classroom and stood in front of the teacher.

"Ano…Kurenai-sensei…when do you think we can start with our private lessons? I think Ino-chan and the others want to play as a band for the festival." Sakura asked hesitantly.

Kurenai looked up from her work and looked at her shy student. "How about at lunch today, if you aren't too busy, you might as well stay when the period ends. Is that okay with you?"

Sakura thought for a bit and nodded her head. "Okay."

"Alright then. You should go and ask Ms. Yamanaka about the band idea first so I can fit your solo and your group performance into the show."

"Okay."

Sakura walked away from the teacher's desk and turned to where her friends were situated. Unaware of the foot in her path she walked towards it and tripped over it, falling down the flight of stairs. Sakura shut her eyes waiting for her impending doom and a whole world of pain…

* * *

**To Be Continued… Please review ;]**

**&& Very very very very very Sorry for the late update. X.-Neko-Chan.x.X**

**Fanfic is acting funniiee right now....it wont let me spell my name correctly or two other faithful fans...sigh...~ you two will get special notice next time =D**


End file.
